Life and Death, Angels and Demons
by Tarnished Libris
Summary: They didn't really know each other. They were all brought up in Sanctuary or knew of Sanctuary. A runaway princess, a banished sorceress, a druid who's father was banished. An assassin living in Sanctuary, a barbarian learning Earth magic, a necromancer who hates knives and a rogue who's past life is shrouded in mystery. Can they kill the Prime Evils?
1. Life and Death, Angels and Demons

Disclaimer: My name is not Blizzard inc., therefore I don't own it!

A/N: If something is bold and italiziced (_**like this**_) it's in another language. (Usually French or Latin) If it's just italicized (_Like this_) it was telepathically said. I'm writing as if the readers have played and know the storyline of Diablo Two Lord of Destruction version 1.13. I threw some stuff from the modifications in the mix as well so if something isn't in LOD or non-expansion, it's probably in one or more mods. (Except the Rogue and djinn.) There are no synergies or prerequisites. There is romance but it's mostly kissing. I stay away from the adult romance in my stories. Nothing of that nature is intended/implied or should be interpreted that way. Please PM or review if you gag at the Mana potion. I _think_ I got it nasty enough.

These Tilde things below indicate a change of Narrators. Italics directly after tildes and/or date indicate who's narrating and their class. I've reworked the beginning because now that I read over it, there was stuff that didn't make sense.

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Thursday, 07 June, 2012, _Therese, Amazon_

"When is that stupid bell gonna ring?!" I said quietly to one of my friends, Jada. She looked at her watch and replied "About now." just as the bell rung. We busted out laughing as we headed to our lockers. Since we got to choose our lockers at The Magical College, all 6 of us were together. Three on the top and three on the bottom. Since I was the leader of our group, I had the top left locker immediately out side the teacher's door. Strategic positioning for dismissal. It's a crowd evader.

But this is the weird thing. Jada was behind me so she caught me as I fell backwards. When she set me down on the ground I passed out. As soon as she let me go, I had a vision. Someone in a hooded white robe told me to open my locker. I asked them " Why tell me to do something I have to do anyway?" The person took its hood off and said "I am Tyrael. I think you know who I am? Yes? No?" My brain made the click but Jesus Christ how could he find me here? "You understand right mortal. I am from Sanctuary. It is in danger and you are one of the heroes that can save it. There is one other class: Rogue. I know not what your class is. Just open your locker with this combination. 24 10 34. I will let you return to your own world now." I had a thousand questions but before I could ask, there was a small uncomfortable pop and I found myself on the floor with all the girls around me and Adella holding a damp paper towel. I asked '' How long have I been out?" Azalie said "About a minute."

I quickly stood up and opened my locker normally, 24, 14, 04, & saw my school supplies. I emptied my backpack all but a couple of notebooks for a quest log and other things and closed my locker. I hissed " Is anyone watching?'' Jenna replied suspiciously "No, why?" "Call a meeting. Now!" "Okay guys, I think I'm gonna be gone for a while. No questions, please. Jada, call Dad and tell him that Therese says "Lut Gholein" They all said OK reluctantly and suspiciously. Jada grabbed her phone as soon as I stopped talking. I heard her say what I told her to and she turned to me and said "He wants to know which setup.'' "Hang on.'' I opened my locker with Tyrael's combo and looked inside. "Tell him I said both." There was a crossbow, bolts, javelins, a shield, a scroll of Town Portal and Identification, which I put in my backpack and a scroll from Tyrael. I opened the scroll which said:

Here are your instructions, hero:

Go to your cafeteria and meet the other heroes. There I can determine your class if you have not already done so. Then take the red portal to The Rogue Encampment. Ask the others to join your party and get your first quest from Akara. Good luck, Daughter of the Light. You will most definitely need it,

Tyrael.

Jada said "Your dad wants to talk to you." She handed me her phone and I said "Hello? Dad? Are you there?" A gruff voice replied "I'm here, although the signal is very crappy." "Not my fault." I said quickly. "Never said it was. Do you have your necklace?" I felt my neckline for my jade and emerald ornament. "It's still there, Dad." "Good. Do you know where that came from?" "No." "It's from Queen Hippolayta. She gave it to your mother. If you ever need help on your quests, call out 'Valkyrie'. Okay, Reese?" "Kay, Dad. I gotta go, I'm eating Jada's minutes." "Love ya, bye." said my dad, and hung up. I gave Jada back her phone and jumped in surprise. Where Jada had been standing was a masked Rogue, dressed in black, with a braided leather whip. I asked "Who are you?" and the Rogue rudely said in Jada's voice "You'll find out when everyone else does." "Jada?" "I'm not Jada, stupid. I'm Rogue."Anyway, I was in hall "C" which was the first Junior classes hallway, so I left along with a Junior boy that I didn't know, from "F" hall with either druid or paladin stuff and the Rogue. It's hard to tell the difference between a paladin and a druid since they both start out with a sword. Druids have single-edged hand-and-a-half swords and a club, and paladins have two double-edged single-handed gladiuses. Anyway an assassin came from "E'' (freshman.), but oddly, we didn't see any one else until the cafeteria. It was odd because it was dismissal when we got the call. When we got down there, I found out the assassin was called Amanda, and the boy was Andrew. Tyrael told Andrew he was a druid. The Rogue said she would prefer to stay unidentified but that we could call her by her class. All told there was a barbarian (Jacob), a necromancer (Bryon), a paladin (Zach), a druid (Andrew), an assassin (Amanda), a Rogue (Jada?), an amazon (Me), and a sorceress (Serenity).

I knew Jacob, Bryon, Andrew, Zach and Serenity. Bryon was my boyfriend last year. Jacob was his best friend that I wanted to be my boyfriend and they've hated me ever since they found out. Zach was one of the most annoying boys in the school last year. Andrew, like me, loved books and had joined the library group. Serenity, I met at a health fair over the summer where we had both volunteered. I got the strangest feeling that the Rogue was Jada but she would not lift her mask and that was her decision.

We went through the portal and oddly, it felt a bit like being underwater. Only it wasn't wet. Anyway we got to the Rogue Encampment in one piece. It's difficult to party with people that hate you, but when Serenity asked "Do you have a better plan?" Bryon and Jacob saw that they had no choice. I asked the others some questions, to see if they had any knowledge of the situation that we were in. Everyone knew a little bit, so we talked it over & I reluctantly took the leader spot. Bryon complained, of course. "Why are you the leader? he whined. I just smiled and replied "I'm sorry, but I don't recall you wanting to lead." I told the others what we had to do. They would've found out eventually. Then using a French white voodoo spell I knew, I projected some of my memories of life in Lut Gholein on to the side of the canvas tent so they could see that I knew what I was talking about. (Cajun, Creole, French and Latin are strongly tied to magic.) They all rallied to my side once the memories ended. Andrew gave a hollow laugh " In this corner ladies and gentlemen, an untrained necro. In the other a zon, an assassin, a pally, a Rogue, a sorce, a barb, and a druid. All untrained, but still. Guess who wins out of sheer force!" I needed to stop this before it got violent. Too late. Bryon stormed up to Andrew and threw a punch, but I got in front before it hit Andrew. Unfortunately, he hit me instead. Someone nearby cried "If you're gonna fight we can clear an area outside of camp!" "We'll take that offer. But not right now.'' I said, a little bit dazed. I went outside the pine log walls of camp, walked around a bit to clear my head, sat down against the hardwood walls and felt like screaming "Why me? I can't lead this group of people. Not people like Bryon who flare at the drop of a hat. Not people like Andrew who will intentionally bait others. I can't lead this group of people." I tried to think of reasons why my allies would do this to me, and each other. It was pointless but I was determined not to let it get to me.

When I finally got up a few seconds later, I had already decided that I would not try to reason with the boys. I would tell them flat-out. Taking Andrew and Bryon aside, I quietly told them that they needed to apologize and get along better or I would kick them both out of the party. They shook hands a little too hard, which told me I probably wouldn't hear the last of it. Then they noticed the look I was giving them and the expressions on their faces said basically "Let's get this over with,'' Which they did. Andrew said "Sorry. I shouldn't have said that." "It's okay, everyone has their days. Especially me." "Here's the part where I turn my back to do something and you start whispering knowing that I can still hear you.'' I called. They started laughing and I joined them because like Andrew said ''Soap opera ending to yet another soap opera episode''

Now that was over we had to get our first quest. We walked over to Akara and she said "I am Akara, High Priestess of the Sisterhood of the Sightless Eye. I welcome you travelers to our camp, but I'm afraid we can offer you but poor shelter within these rickety walls. You see, our ancient Sisterhood has fallen under a strange curse. The mighty Citadel from which we have guarded the gates to the East for generations has been corrupted by the evil Demoness Andariel. I still can't believe it...but she turned many of our sister Rogues against us and drove us from our ancestral home. Now the last defenders of the Sisterhood are either dead or scattered through out the wilderness. If you and your party are to defend us as many of our dead Rogues did, you will need a quest log." She asked ''Does anyone have a piece of parchment?" Everyone's faces looked blank. I dug my hand into my pack and pulled out a notebook. " Would this do, Akara?" She looked at it and smiled "Thank you. This will save a bit of time so I won't have to remake it." She started chanting a spell. It was words and yet it wasn't. I recognized a whole lot of Creole phrases but they were combined in a way that really did not make sense at all. I can only try to translate what was said. Something like: "I am very good at what I do, yet I can not do it alone. I call for the helping hand of the questing spirits to help this party for the quests they will undertake...And now let us create the book that will allow them to do these quests, see their Statistics,..." Like I said, my translation isn't perfect. The spell was finally over. I flipped through the notebook. We now had a Quest log, an enchanted map, Skill trees for each of the classes and statistics for everyone. And there were some freebies like a rune ladder and runewords. After I finished looking through it, Akara took it back and cloned it seven times and passed them around so that everyone had one, but each individual had only his/her stats in their book and I had everyone's. ''Go to Gheed. He has something to give you to make questing a bit easier for you. Then I will give you your first quest."

I don't know why but something about Gheed just wasn't right. Gheed is obnoxious, fairly stubborn, and an all around untrustworthy person. But we did as Akara told us and went to go see him. He greeted us as follows "Good day to you, partners! I'm Gheed and I can already tell I'll be your best friend in this gods-forsaken camp. A spare weapon, some gold, a small gem, Jewel, or low rune is all I want in exchange for...'' Here he paused and Bryon got my attention "For a slap on the face?'' he whispered. I replied softly " Nah, it's too oily. Kick him on his butt if he bends over." Gheed continued on '' A communication spell!'' He went to the entrance of the tent that he called home and bent over to hunt for the spell book. "Go on Bryon! Do it!" I whispered. And he did. Gheed fell over, hit his head on a terra cotta vase and nearly knocked himself out. Bryon got back to us just as Gheed started to pick himself up. He handed the spell book to me and started to reach for my quiver of bolts. ''I don't think so, pickpocket!'' I yelled as I leaped back and drew my crossbow and one bolt. I raised it and said ''Touch my ammo and die.'' He whimpered "That's my payment." I said ''All right here it is.'' I fired my crossbow aiming at his hat. I was a natural. The bolt took his hat off and embedded it in the exact center of a bulls-eye that had been behind Gheed. (I don't know why it was there and don't care. Gheed has a lot of junk.) He was mad so we scrammed.

Once we had enough distance between ourselves and Gheed, Rogue said ''Read the spell." ''Let her find it first, Rogue. That's a big spell book." countered Jacob unusually coming to my defense. "No," I said ''It's actually the first spell. It has an index in the front and that's what I'm trying to find the end of.'' She replied "Oh. That's a freaking' big index then.'' 'Ya think?" I flipped a page. Finally I found the spell and turns out you had to have 3 sprigs of cloves, 1/2 gram of ginger and a demon tongue. I said slowly "Guys, it'll be a few hours before this crap is ready so I suggest that you find something to do. Unless anyone wants to help me?" Unsurprisingly, no one said yes to helping me. I got everything we needed from Akara as well as a cauldron, mortar, pestle and some spare herbs that she said were quite useful for healing. Once I got everything going (except the fire, that was already up) I marked the time on a sundial and went outside to the river.

I heard footsteps coming toward me. An imp cackled "Party troubles?" I nodded yes while slyly bolting my crossbow. It said "Whoa don't shoot! I'm friendly! I can come in the barriers!" "Oh really? Do tell." I said sarcastically. "You're a D-E-M-O-N." "No I'm not. I'm a D-J-I-N-N" "Is your name is Faia and do you like the form of Cleopatra?" The djinn's jaw dropped. Evidently she could come in the barriers and was friends with Akara because when I went to check the time she was complaining to Akara that she hadn't even met me yet and I knew everything about her, which wasn't entirely my fault. I had heard about her in _Powerful Djinn in History_. Akara saw me walking past and said loud enough for me to hear "Stop your complaining Faia. She can not help knowing about you." Faia started to speak but Akara cut her off "As such, Faia, from now on, your assignment is to work with this group." She looked at Akara for a second and then screamed "NO!' so loud that it left everyone's eardrums reverberating for about 30 seconds afterward. After every one (except Gheed, oddly) had congregated to see what the heck was going on, I held up a javelin and said "I have silver & iron and I'm not afraid to use them. Do as she says. You can start by apologizing." "I will not apologize until you put that javelin away." Faia snapped. "Wait."

I quickly scratched two overlapping circles in the dirt. I pointed to the circle farthest from me. "In there, _**s'il vous plait**_." Faia sullenly walked to it. Before I walked into mine I scratched 3 words where the circles overlapped. Defense, Quest and Faia. I walked quickly into mine and heard Akara and someone else gasp. When Faia had gotten hold of the shaft of the javelin, we drove it into the dirt where the circles overlapped and buried the head completely. Even though it was a clear day with no clouds, a bolt of lightning hit the javelin and we heard a massive roll of thunder. The javelin burst into flame and the tongues of flame encircled my wrist, my allies' wrists and Faia's waist. Then, following my lead, we danced around the javelin like May polers. The dance was simple; Stomp your right foot twice, your left foot once and point at the person opposite you, then repeat and point at the person on the first person's right until you had pointed at everyone with the person (or djinn) that you were binding in the center doing nothing. Oh, and while you were doing that you had to move in a fast circle. And it was all to get a stupid djinn under my control.

After that was over, I saw that the communication spell was pretty much done. But before I did anything to the potion, I cast a silent verifying spell to check for tampering. A certain djinni popped up and said "Yes, Therese, someone has tampered with your spell." "How? I want all the details now!" "While you were busy binding me, Gheed snuck over here & put a poisoned essence of silver in the potion." "So that's why he wasn't with the rest of us." "And he gave you the wrong book." "WHAT! That incompetent little bastard!" I almost literally exploded. But wait, what if Faia was lying? I furiously cast a lying spell. The results were negative which meant Faia wasn't lying. Gheed was.

I told the others and Jacob said 'I want to bury the hatchet...in his skull." Serenity agreed by saying that she thought that we ought to wait until we had a very powerful skill for each class to kick Gheed's butt. Bryon thought that when he got the skill of Reanimate that whenever we needed to try a new skill all we had to do is reanimate Gheed's corpse. He added ''I can probably Reanimate it several times over." "I agree with Bryon, because it would improve morale, but we don't really need a very powerful skill to kill Gheed because I saw his stats and he has awful Vitality. Something like twenty points in it. His Mana though, is what he seems to have put all his points in so that means he's a spell caster. We should kill him after we do our first quest though." I added.

We walked back over to Akara and pretended that we had the communication spell. She took the bait and gave the quest to us. She said "There is a place of great evil in the wilderness. Kasha's Scouts have informed me that a cave nearby is filled with shadowy creatures and horrors from beyond the grave. I fear that these creatures are massing for an attack against our encampment. If you are sincere about helping us, find the labyrinth and destroy the foul beasts. Faia will come with you. Your reward is training in the skill of your choice, and a trunk that is enchanted to go with you everywhere you go. I will leave it to you to find out how big it is. May the Great Eye watch over you." We really didn't want to go, but this was the quest that would tell us whether or not that we were a decent party. We had Charsi check over our weapons and she said that they were in very good shape. She also said that once we got some gold we could buy stuff from her.

We left in a 'V' shaped formation and about ten minutes after we left Bryon found a Rogue scout corpse. The boys checked for armor and weapons and found arrows, a bow and some tight-fitting leather armor which they handed to me. The girls checked for gold and potions. They found no potions and eighteen pieces of gold which we quickly divided up. But all of a sudden Rogue shouted "Get back!" The corpse burst into flame. We leaped back and Faia said "That was close!'' "Yeah. But how did you know to warn us?" Amanda asked. Rogue shrugged and replied "Passive skill probably. I haven't checked my tree to see what all I can do." Then about twenty-five minutes later we saw two zombies and we freaked out silently. We were all a bit scared and Serenity was the only one who reacted. Aiming her staff, she lashed out with the only skill she had; Fireball. Then I started to shoot the zombies and one tried to slap me. It clawed my shoulder and I said "Screw the bows." I grabbed my javelins and viciously stabbed it to death. "Dang!" said Jacob admiringly. "Thanks. Now help kill the rest of these stupid things." I said. Once we had killed the zombies we took what they dropped which was mostly potions and gold. The girls gave me the healing potion for the scratch that the zombie gave me. It tasted like gumbo with too much Worcestershire and Tabasco sauce in it. After I got it choked down, we started to march again. We met a demonic quill rat which we promptly killed and three miles from camp there was a split in the path. The others looked at me and said "Which way?" "Left.'' I commanded. We started to run and in a few minutes we found a tunnel leading to a cave. It was dark and cold and no one wanted to be there. I jumped in feet first. The others followed and we all felt the dark magic that lingered upon the air like leaves on a tree. We were a bit shocked when an aura of light started to glow around each of us. Faia said that it was a light radius and that as we got stronger it would get brighter and affect more area.

''Ooh, looky here! A brand new questing party!'' cackled a demon from the tribe of Fallen. "You had to freakin' broadcast it, didn't you?'' I said trying to sound as displeased as possible. "Yep.'' it replied. "Nicely done. Real nicely done. And now you're gonna pay for it." said Rogue as she started to wind up her whip. Rogue caught the demon around the throat with her whip, swung it toward Amanda who stabbed it with her katar. The demon dropped some magic rawhide gloves of which I identified the properties with a scroll of Identification which the demon had also dropped. They turned out to be some Barbaric Gloves of Strength with five points to War Cries (Barbarian only) and ten points to strength. ''Want 'em, Jacob?'' I ask. ''Yeah, they'll help with weapon grip as well as the stats on them." He replied. He waved me over and asked "What skill should I put the points in 'cause I have no clue what to do." "Actually, if there are stats like that the points will automatically add themselves to the skills so you can do all the War Cries just as if you had five points in them." I said raising my voice a bit so the others could hear. "_**Merci**_." said Jacob. "_**Il n'y a pas de quoi**_." I replied in the same language.

"Hey guys, remember when I said that I would reanimate Gheed?" called Bryon. We all nodded yes. He said "After I got my stuff checked by Charsi, I went to talk to Gheed. I quote "A Necromancer? I hoped I'd never have to lay my eyes on one of your kind again. The recent trouble's brought out all kinds, I see. Nevertheless, your money's good. Now, now, now don't be shy. All my items are guaranteed for life and come with a two day warranty." Unquote. He's scared of necromancers." "There's no need for a two day warranty because once you buy an item you usually use the item as soon as you get it. So a two hour warranty is more like it because we can determine for ourselves if the weapon is a piece of crap or not." I mentioned. "That's true." said Zach speaking for the first time. This whole incident seemed to have changed him from a laughing prankster, to a silent but deadly warrior. Then, before anything else could be said, Faia popped up and commented "You are about to be in big trouble." We heard unnatural cackling and a scimitar flew past to hit the earthen wall ten feet behind us. We got prepared for a big fight.

I backed away from the others and bumped against a boulder. Serenity had also been backing away and we clambered up the side of it to a ledge about five feet higher than everyone else. She had Electric Sparks and I had Magic Arrow. I whispered "Valkyrie" and a woman in shining blue armor with a spear appeared beside the rest of the party. Then about 8 demons came and we rained our meager attacks upon them. Jacob was going all out. Whacking and cutting the demons with his hand ax, he made them easy kills for the rest of us. "Necromancer, can you somehow mark your summons so we don't get them confused with what we're supposed to kill. I'm only askin' 'cause I wasted six arrows trying to kill those stupid things before I realized they were your summons." Bryon didn't say anything but pulled arrow after arrow out of his two bone warriors. "Are these the six arrows that were supposedly wasted?" "Thanks man." I said as I reloaded my quiver and bow. He ordered his skeletal warriors to stand still while he dipped his wand in the demon blood and slapped them on the back of the skull to mark them. Serenity looked a bit disgusted.

The ledge continued on into the darkness and I asked Faia "Can you make some floating torches so we can see where we're going?" Three balls of cold electric blue fire popped into being beside me and Serenity. Three more balls of warm red fire popped into being beside the rest of the party. I started walking along the ledge into the thick darkness ahead. The others followed. We were so jittery that we pointed our weapons at any little noise. The fire illuminated a zombie not too far ahead. "My kill." I said calmly and drew an arrow. I pulled the bowstring back and let the arrow fly. The arrow knocked the zombie's head off and Andrew said "Head shot." "Check if it's dead first before you say that." I said. Sure enough, the zombie started walking towards us and I pelted it with more arrows. It died again and Jacob calmly cut off its arms and legs with his ax. It was only when he was at the back of the party that he looked at me and pulled a face. I nodded, signifying I knew how he felt. He gagged, something I hadn't seen him do since sixth grade science class when I told him what haggis was. (Sheep stomach with meat, vegetables and if you're really unlucky grass. Yuck!)

Anyway we kept walking and after a while there was a split in the path. Jacob started down the left branch. "Dead end. Nothin' down here but a chest and trash." Rogue sprinted down there and hollered "If you like your hair, I suggest you duck, cause this thing has fireballs and Poison Nova." We took her warning and covered our heads with our flimsy metal bucklers. She opened the chest with a kick. Poison spewed out with a hiss and fire with a crackle. "It smells like sulfur." coughed Serenity. Once the poison and fire had dissipated, Rogue looked inside and said "Now I know why there were two traps." I jumped off the ledge and said "Why?" "Cause there's at least 1000 gold pieces in here!" We quickly ran down there and we all gasped. I said "That'll be 111 pieces apiece if it's a full thousand. We got no time to split it even." With that I touched it and it all disappeared. They all looked at me in surprise. "Check your inventory." I said calmly. I knew that it would split into our shares but they didn't. "What!? How did you divide it even and get it in to our inventories?" asked Jacob in wonder. "Magic." I said. "Let's go. There are plenty more enemies in here and I don't want another surprise attack."

"Faia? What is that roaring sound?" I said with true fear in my voice. "Gargantuan beast." she said. "Crap." I mutter. The beast was about eight feet tall and roared about as loud as a mad lion. I quickly grabbed a few javelins and hurled them at the thing. One hit it very close to the heart. Amanda ran forward, jumped, and kicked the javelin so that it pierced the heart and the Gargantuan Beast died. With a retrieving spell, I retrieved my javelins. "Jacob, have you gotten any more stat points yet?" "I'm really close. A couple more fights should do it. Why?" "I'm not trying to be bossy but the skill points that you get, you honestly should put it in Find Item or Find Potion. Either one would really help because I don't wanna have to manually search every corpse." I said. "So basically I have a spell that does the dirty work? Nice." he asked. "What use do the dead have for gold?" I responded.

125 demons, 93 zombies, 15 Gargantuan Beasts and everyone getting fifteen stat and skill points later we met a boss Zombie whose name was Corpsefire. (His name was in glowing letters above his head as well as the words spectral hit.) Andrew dashed in close, whacked Corpsefire and danced out of reach before it could hit him. Corpsefire lashed out and hit Andrew around the head. Andrew said in a whiny hurt voice "You hurt me! I kill you!" And so he did. With his club in one hand and his sword in the other, he cut Corpsefire's head off and beat the rest of his zombified body with the club. The zombie dropped a book titled _Defenses Against Daemons_, and more gold. The black cave, formerly illuminated only by the fireballs that Faia had conjured, suddenly filled with a white blinding light as if God Himself had purified the cave. The light decreased in amount until we could see without squinting. Jacob cast Find Item and one last thing fell out of Corpsefire's rotted body. A scroll of Town Portal, our ticket out of there. We set it up and swam through.

Once we got back to the Rogue Encampment, we saw a red-headed woman that hadn't been in camp when we left for the Den of Evil. She walked up to us as if we had somehow ticked her off. "Welcome, outlanders, to our glorious hovel. I know you're here to challenge the evil that drove us from our ancestral home. But know this. Akara may be our spiritual leader but I command the Rogues in battle. It will take much more than killing a few beasts in the wilderness to earn Kasha's trust." "Excuse you! This party and I have just come from the Den of Evil where we killed about 250 demons in less than 5 hours and they each got at least forty-five points!" erupted Faia. The points bit was a lie as we all knew. "Liar." said Kasha "Do not lie to me on points, demon. The highest one might have twenty. Anyway I have a quest for you too. But get your reward from Akara first 'cause you'll need it." she sneered. We were a bit shocked at how rude she was to Akara.

We dashed over to Akara and we saw eight tiny golden trunks that could barely fit a child in them, much less a piece of armor. "Open them. You will get a nice surprise." So we did. The trunk grew just enough that we could get in them. The trunks had seven magically enlarged layers on the inside. There was a tight corkscrew slide to get to each layer. The first layer had a drab gray apartment with a house (Or trunk?) key on the wall by the door. I thought "This is so the wrong color. It would look way better in a tropical scene." The walls instantly changed. The apartment was about 20ft long and about 25ft wide with a 15ft high ceiling. The second room was a library of legends, stories and histories about the classes of heroes, their skills and the world of Sanctuary. That room was about 200ft by 250ft. The third room was set up like an armory with a forge to rival Charsi's in the Monastery. (What I'd heard of it anyway.) This room was as big as the entire Rogue Encampment!(Which is pretty small. Only 300ft X 300ft) In one corner there was Iron, steel, leather and other things to make armor and weapons with an enchanted hammer at rest on the anvil.(I knew it was enchanted because it was green and pulsing) The fourth room was a training room where I could train with just about anything. There were bows, swords, axes, assassin weapons, you get the idea. That room was 450ft by 500ft. The fifth, sixth and seventh rooms were huge. In the fifth room alone, you could put a small town with a market and docks inside and still have space left over. Those rooms were completely empty. I heard Andrew's voice through the wall saying "Has anyone else reached the bottom three rooms?" "Me." I called back and heard Jacob and Serenity say "Me." "What are we supposed to do with them, then?" he called. I shouted "The bottom three look like where we store the stuff that we get on our quests. Simple storage, just massively enlarged. The top four are self-explanatory" We all got quiet. We heard Zach at his forge but it was unusually quiet for Zach. I called "What's up with Zach?" "Good question." answered Amanda. "Last year he was a joker, remember? Now he's a silent warrior earning his status among his fellow warriors by making something." I said, recalling the times that I'd gotten pranked by the class clown. The water balloons, the soccer ball to the gut among others. I opened my trunk to get out and Akara asked "Do you like it?" "I can't speak for the others, but yes, I like it." I had taken the key from my apartment and walked over to the trunk that Zach had disappeared into. I put the key in the lock on Zach 's trunk and turned. I went inside and saw that he, like me, had changed the color of the apartment. His however, was a quiet church where it was quite peaceful. I didn't dawdle and took the slide to the forge on the third floor. I saw Zach but he wasn't making armor or weapons. He was making stands for them. Armor stands, weapon stands, just a place to hang them when you weren't using it. "Zach." I called quietly. He whirled around and said "How did you get in here?" I held up the key. "Oh." "Hey man, I'm not trying to be nosy or anythin' but how come you aren't bein' your normal self? You've always been a joker, the life and soul of everythin'. What's up?" I said a bit concerned because Zach was hardly ever this serious. "It's just the...enormity, the hugeness, of the situation, I guess. Just pressed upon us like this, no training, no warning, it isn't fair." " Did you just stop when you saw the forge or did you go all the way down?" I asked "I stopped here." "The fourth floor is a training room. Fifth and onward is massive storage." "Oh. Thanks. Um, do you want to.." He nodded to the slide to the training room. "Do I want to spar with you? I'm an amazon, we don't deal with swords much, but I can try." We slid down the curlicue slide. I grabbed a short sword like what he had but it was too heavy. "Hang on." I looked at the items req.: Required Strength 15. Required Dexterity 15. If I used this one I'd only have five points left. Zach assumed as much and tossed me his and said "I'll take that one." "Fine by me."

I guess the others freaked out when they heard us because one minute we were sparring with magically guarded blades and the next Jacob had me by the arms, pulling me out of the fight. Bryon said "Okay, who attacked whom?" "No one attacked anyone. We were just practicing." Bryon's expression was like "Oh crap. We screwed up bad." "Guys, you were perfectly right to think Zach attacked me or I attacked him. For all you know we could have. We didn't however. It's okay." I said softening the "Oh crap." factor. "And besides our blades were guarded so we couldn't hurt each other." said Zach further lowering the "Oh crap" factor. " I'll tell you what. Why don't we all get a sword we each can use, break into teams and spar with each other? I can guard everyone's blades." I offered. Everyone declined saying they would go to bed.

I went back to the library to get _Defenses Against Daemons _and headed topside. When I knocked on the sturdy wooden frame of Akara's tent, she told me to enter. Inside, the rafters were covered in herbs and spices. Akara was meditating in the center of her tent. I waited patiently until Akara said "What have you brought me that I need to see?" I showed her the book and asked if it was trustworthy compared to the one Gheed had given us. She said ''The one Gheed gave you is definitely a fraud, but why would he do such a thing? The one out of the Den of Evil however, is a very good book. I use it myself for defensive spells and the like.'' ''Thank you Sister Akara. I will attempt to puzzle out the mystery later. For now I will sleep."

Friday, June 08, 2012

The next day it was raining lightly as we trained our separate skills and figured out where we would put our stashes. I put mine midway between Akara and Charsi a) in case I got hurt and b) if my weapon or armor broke. Kasha hurried over to me when she saw me and apologized for the way she had acted the previous day. "I had just found out something had occurred at our graveyard. Assemble your party and I will tell you." When I had found everybody in my party, Kasha cried "A monstrosity has occurred at the Monastery Graveyard! Blood Raven, our finest captain at the Battle of Tristram against Diablo, was one of the first to be corrupted by that Evile Demoness Andariel. Now she haunts our graveyard, raising our dead as zombies! If you see any Rogue corpses along the way, take their weapons and armor and burn the bodies. They will not raise a burnt corpse. Oh, when you get to Flavie, you have reached the Cold Plains." A Rogue archer standing at the edge of camp whispered "If you succeed Kasha will allow you to hire some of us as mercenaries." We thanked her and went on our way. "What is a mercenary?" Bryon asked after we had left camp. "A mercenary, merc for short, is someone you hire to fight with you." I said.

"Hey guys, guess what happened to me last night!" Amanda laughed. "What, you ticked Gheed off and he whooped your rear?" replied Bryon. "Nope! I had a dream. You know how in Halo, Master Chief starts off with a pistol and assault rifle? I was in the Den and so was Master Chief and Cortana. He pops his pistol at some of the demons and says "Screw this". Then he takes out his assault rifle, sets it on automatic and with one magazine, shoots down all the demons that were there. You could hear a Grunt far off in the distance shouting 'bad cyborg'." We laughed and Jacob said "Remember that one forever Mandy. That was funny." Amanda giggled again.

It was a fairly uneventful trip through the Blood Moor where the Den of Evil was located. The only thing that really surprised us was that we stumbled on a demon camp with three Fallen shamans and fifteen little followers apiece. A forty-five minute fight ensured that all Shamans and followers were killed and the demon camp destroyed after we made sure no valuable books or scrolls were hidden anywhere. Another ten points were gained there as well as some armor for everyone that didn't have any.(Which was every one but me. A stone tablet with a rune carved into it was also found.) We reached Flavie who showed us a square roughly three feet by three feet and said they were called waypoints. First, you had to activate it by standing on it. Then, you had to choose from a list of other waypoints that you had already activated. Finally, you shouted that destination and away you went. "Try it. The encampment has one. After that your waypoint navigation class is over." said Flavie. We tried it and it was fast. Serenity almost threw up when she came back from the encampment. "Any thing else you need to tell us, Flavie?" I asked. "When you get to the crossroads, take the left branch to the graveyard. The right branch goes to the Stony Field." she said "Oh, and Therese? It might be wise to put one point in Magic Arrow and whatever you have left in multi-shot. The Sisters have always admired you amazons for that. We never could quite replicate that skill." I thanked her and did just that. I tried it out on a band of Fallen attempting to sneak up on us. One arrow split into five more and killed all the demons. I retrieved them and had more arrows in my quiver than I started with, which was good. More rain clouds were coming so we hurried away. Our shields were mostly over our heads so we could see with out shaking the water of our eyelashes every two steps. When we stepped inside the graveyard boundaries the rain stopped. We turned to face the Cold Plains. It was raining there but not in the graveyard. I made a mental note to ask Kasha about it.

Corpses shuffled toward us slowly. Serenity sets one of my arrows on fire after I load it in my bow. When I shot, the arrow multiplied and each arrow was on fire. They exploded and each of the zombies died. We entered the creepy cemetery and right smack in the center was a tall oak tree with dead Rogues hanging from its many branches. Blood Raven shrieks "Matron Andariel commands your death!" Zach, before issuing a fierce Zakarum war cry, shouts back "I think not!" Then, with sword in hand, he uses Holy Bolt to destroy the Zombies around her. Zach charges Blood Raven but she sidesteps him. I attack from the back. She catches my javelin on her shield and the flat of her sword hits me on the head, knocking me to the ground. I get up feeling dizzy. Blood Raven is trapped between me, Zach and one of Bryon's summons. The skeleton raises its mace and hits Blood Raven hard in her stomach. She doubles over and Zach plunges his sword through her corrupted body. He shoots another Holy Bolt just in case. Her soul comes up out of her body which shoots lightning. I yell "Jump!" as the lightning streaks toward each of us. We barely manage to evade Blood Raven's last attempt to kill us. Ten more points apiece were obtained.

When we told Kasha that we had killed Blood Raven she said "I can hardly believe you've defeated Blood Raven! Though she was once my closest friend, I pray that her tortured spirit remains banished forever. You've won my respect stranger, and the allegiance of the Rogues. I have placed several of my best warriors at your disposal." "Thank you Kasha. Out of interest, who is your best fire arrow archer?" I asked. "Diana has the most power but Angelique can shoot farther." The Rogue that had tipped us off about Kasha' reward came forward and said "Yes, Lady Kasha?" "Are you Diana?" I asked. She nodded. "How much would it cost to hire you?" I questioned. "Fifty gold for everyone in your party to have one." said Kasha. I muttered "Cheap." I handed over fifty gold and told my party quietly "Do not let on to Gheed how much money we have. I do not want it stolen." Jacob chose Heather as his cold mercenary, Bryon picked Alicia, a fire archer, Serenity chose Sophia a cold bow woman, Andrew picked Ryann, another fire archer, Rogue selected Gwinnie who shot cold arrows, Amanda picked Angelique, Zach selected a cold archer named Samantha and Faia refused to get a mercenary saying she make as many as was needed.

After we finished choosing mercenaries, we met Warriv a traveling merchant who had a cheerful personality and was quite skilled at fighting with a staff. "Greetings, stranger. I'm not surprised to see your kinds here. Many adventurers have traveled this way since the recent troubles began. No doubt you've heard about the tragedy that befell the town of Tristram. Some say that Diablo walks the world again. I'm not sure if I believe that, but, a Dark Wanderer did travel this route a few weeks ago. He was headed east to the mountain pass guarded by the Rogue Monastery. Maybe it's nothing but evil seems to have trailed in his wake. You see, shortly after the Wanderer went through, the Monastery's gates to the pass were closed and strange creatures began ravaging the countryside. Until it's safer outside the camp and the gates are re-opened I'll stay here with my caravan. I hope to leave for Lut Gholein before the shadow that fell over Tristram consumes us all. If you're still alive then, I'll take you along."

"What happened to Tristram?" asked Jacob. Warriv sighed. It was overrun by demons from within that hellish monastery. I was a popular trader so I knew many of the people personally; Pepin was the healer, Griswold was the blacksmith, Adria was the local witch and magic scroll reader, Gillian and her grand-mere were barmaids, Wirt was a peg-legged boy and a slick salesman too, Deckard Cain was a wise sage, Ogden was the tavern keeper, Leoric was king, and Prince Albert was his son that Diablo possessed." "Who is Diablo?" asked Amanda. "Diablo is the Lord of Terror. His brothers are Mephisto, the Lord of Hatred, and Baal, the Lord of Destruction. Their favorite minions are Andariel, the Maiden of Anguish, and Duriel, Prince of Pain, who are brother and sister." Amanda's mouth curved in a small "o". "Akara may have more information. She seems to be the leader of this camp." continued Warriv.

"It seems to me that we are facing an evil, difficult to combat or comprehend. It may be wise if we enlist the help of a sage named Deckard Cain. He is, as far as I can tell, still in Tristram. The fastest way to get there is through the Cairn stones in the Stony Field. The key to these stones is in the Tree of Infuiss in the Dark Wood. Both have a waypoint. Good luck." said Akara. "All right crew, the waypoint isn't likely to be on the path so we'll need that telepathy spell." said Serenity shooting a glare in my direction. "I ain't gonna say nothin'." I said. I picked up Defenses Against Daemons and thumbed though it. This spell was simpler than the one that Gheed had given us. "_**l'esprit parle**_!" I chanted. "_Can you hear me now_?" I thought. "_No, I'm completely tuned out_!" Bryon replied sarcastically. Amanda smiled. Serenity commented "Well...it works." "Did you honestly expect it not to?" I asked. "No." Serenity replied. "Yeah, yeah, keep tellin' yourself that, sister. Let's go find that Deckard Cain person." I commanded.

We used the waypoint to get to the Cold Plains where the wind had a distinct chill to it. We stayed to the path at a brisk run. Since the left branch lead to the graveyard, we took the right path. The closer my party got to the Stony Field, the more aggressive the demons became, oddly. Once we entered the Stony Field, I commanded "Spread out. If you find the waypoint, give a mental shout. If you get stuck with a crap-load of demons either run or fight. After a while, Rogue said "_Waypoint in my sector to the right of Therese and left of Faia_." We walked towards Rogue's section and heard a curious flapping noise. A pterodactyl with a demon head came flying at us. Jacob swung his ax at it but it dodged the blow. I saw a tree-like nest and yelled "Target the nest!"

Serenity used Blaze to surround the nest. Blaze is a sweet spell. When Serenity casts it, fire appears at her feet. When she runs, the fire follows her. The faster she runs, the hotter the fire is. The hotter the fire is, the faster the demons die. It's that kind of spell you have to see to understand.

The nest quickly caught fire. The demons inside were screaming loudly. Finally the screaming got to be too loud for Bryon to comfortably handle. He stood close to the nest, and cast Poison Nova. It turned an acid shade of green and split open revealing an amulet, some gold and honeycombs filled with blood. Evidently these creatures were like flying vampiric bees, sucking blood and bringing it back to the nest where they give it to workers that put the blood and an egg in a bloodcomb. As a larvae, the Blood Crow feeds off the blood. Once all the blood is gone, the larvae spins a cocoon-like shell and bursts out three days later as an adult Blood Crow.

We found the waypoint some fifteen yards north of the nest. "Take the waypoint back to town and get healed and fix your armor or shield. Then go to the Stony Field, once everyone's back. We will follow the path to a passage that leads to the Dark Wood. There someone will set up a Town portal but no one will go through. Once we find the stones, someone else will set up a Tp, and we will head back to the waypoint, to camp, through the Dark Wood Tp, and find the Tree of Infuiss and the waypoint." I commanded. "Also, try to speak telepathically as much as possible so that the demons can't intercept orders." said Zach. "Good idea." I agreed.

After everyone had gathered in the Stony Field, some Dark Spearwomen attacked us. They were vicious and all of us had injuries before the fight was over. We scrounged around and found some healing potions in an abandoned house as well as another stone tablet with a rune carved in it. After we drank the disgusting potions, we found the path and tried to outrun every demon that gave chase. It wasn't easy. More Spearwomen came and we had to fight them. The rough terrain didn't help. Another storm came. The corrupted Rogues scattered. We took advantage and ran on the path. We actually passed right by the Cairn Stones. "Stop! The stones are here!" cried Jacob, already fighting some Carvers protecting the stones. We turn and dash back. "_Boss monster named Rakanishu, immune to cold. Use fire or lightning_." I say. We find all the Carvers dead and Jacob grappling Rakanishu, their weapons lay on the ground, forgotten. "Must have used Whirlwind." Rogue commented. "_Nobody interfere, this is my kill_." Jacob ordered. Zach and Bryon looked ready to jump in. I laid a hand on their arms. "Let him do this. He wants to prove himself." "To whom?" asked Zach. "Himself, I assume. I do not know." I replied.

Meanwhile, Jacob had backed Rakanishu up to a Cairn stone. The demon was visibly weakening. The demon pulled a hidden dagger and slashed Jacob across the ribcage with it. The barbarian roared, picked up his axes and slashed Rakanishu's arms off. Black blood poured out of the demon's stumps. Rakanishu looked at the space where his arms were and howled. It was a howl of pain and despair. Before anything else happened, Jacob cut off the demon's head. Serenity turned away and vomited. None of the Rogues, archers or otherwise looked happy. I set up the town portal. Bryon had been examining the blade of the dagger. "It's been poisoned. But it's like the poison I use. It'll kill a demon seconds flat but it won't kill any human." "Must of had trouble in the ranks." Rogue commented. "Would you shut it?" snapped Serenity. "Let's see the armor." I said, taking over as the healer. I open a connection between me and Zach "_Prayer would be useful about now_." "_What?" _"_The defensive aura, Prayer. Take a look at your skill trees, warrior_." I shut the connection off. "Scratch to the armor, nothing else." I said to Jacob. The mud, the blood and the rain mixed on the ground and made the stench awful. "Come on, let's go." I stepped back to talk with Andrew, he hadn't said much since the Den of Evil. Twenty points had been gained since Blood Raven died.

Everyone was mentally talking to someone while walking. The hirelings had their connection. Jacob, Bryon and Zach had theirs. Serenity, Rogue and Amanda were doing their thing. Faia was off doing something, hunting I suppose. I opened a connection to Andrew. "_Path of the bear or path of the wolf_?" I questioned. "_Druids shapeshift?_" Andrew asked. "_Werewolf, Werebear, Summoning animals and vines, and the elements._" I replied. "_My dad told me a little about this stuff, after he was banished from Scosglen for killing someone. My uncle and my father both loved my mother. They fought and my uncle died. After the wedding, Mother and Dad were banished and they came to Earth, thanks to Tyrael. That was a year before I was born._" Andrew said. I hadn't expected a back story. I decided to reveal a bit of my past "_My mother, an amazon, was banished for falling in love with a Non-Clan merchant. After my father retired we also came to Earth. But we had Drognan set up a dimensional portal. I spent half of my life in Lut Gholein._"

Everyone was shocked as a blue aura came up about our feet. We visibly relaxed as we realized it was Zach's Prayer aura. The rain stopped and we found ourselves at the entrance to the Underground Passage. Night was falling so we jumped feet first in the tunnel. There was a pile of dryish firewood and dried fruit. It looked like an altar. Bryon checked the fruit for poison while Rogue and Amanda scouted ahead using Notice-me-not and Cloak of Shadows respectively. Rogue reported "The demons have someone, she's screaming like crazy. I think she's a sacrifice." "Weapons at the ready. We're gonna fight." I order. The demons round the corner. The hirelings and I start picking off Carvers. In a matter of a few seconds one quarter of the demons are gone. Bryon starts making minions. They attack the demons from the rear. The Carvers panic, drop the sacrifice, and run. I dash forward, cut the woman free from her bonds and give her a javelin. She takes the hint and helps us fight. Once the fight is over, I set up the firewood and Serenity sets it on fire with Fire Ball. "Watches are two hours. First and last watch is me and this lady, second is Bryon, Bryon's minion's and Jacob, third is Rogue and Amanda, fourth is Zach and Serenity, fifth will be the mercenaries and Faia." I say.

"Speaking of, where is she?" asked Zach. "We're about to find out. FAIA!" I roared. She popped up and asked "Yes?" "Where have you been?" I yell. "Out with a friend." she replies. "Doing what?" I say in my deadliest voice. "Stuff." The djinn replies. Enraged, I grab a rib bone and throw it at her. It hits Faia and her essence gets sucked inside. I pick it up and give it back to the skeleton that I took it from. "Don't let her escape." I order the Skeleton who nods and gives me a toothy grin. When I turn away, the bone warrior sticks the rib back in his body with a loud pop. I cringe.

After everyone is asleep, I realize my amulet has come undone. When I pull it off to see if the strap broke, the lady asks "Where did you get this?" "My mother gave it to my dad as a token of her love and he gave it to me." "What was your mother's name?" "Stephanie." I respond. "No, her real name." The lady says. "Aruba Narcissa, and mine is Therese Narcissa. My father is Mandan the retired trader." "My niece!" The lady says. Then I realize who this woman is. "Aunt Diana! It's so good to see you at last. But why are you here?" "Athulua sent me a vision that you would come to Sanctuary, and that you would be accompanied by a corrupted djinn. If what I saw earlier is anything to go by, you have already found it. I have some silver that we can put on the bone to make her stay in there." I snap my fingers and all of Bryon's summons look up from their game of pebble throwing. I tap my ribcage and the one with Faia throws the bone to me. I catch it and very nearly drop it. I call my trunk so that we can have an anvil. My aunt starts heating the silver. Before long, the silver is melted and my allies have vacated this part of the cave, going five yards off to where it's cooler. Evidently the heat escaped the trunk and they could feel it. Jacob woke up and didn't really understand what we were doing so as we worked, we explained as best as we could. He offered a unenchanted hammer that Rakanishu had dropped to smash the bone. If we did this right, Faia would be destroyed, I would need another djinn and Akara would probably be shocked. Did I care? Not really. Jacob flattened the bone until one more stroke would break it. He handed the hammer to me and with no mercy, I smashed the silver coated bone. Faia was screaming but her screams fell on deaf or sleeping ears. The rest of the night passed quietly.

Saturday, June 09, 2012

We woke the others up and passed around the dried fruit. We had slept in our armor and most of us were complaining that the leather was rigid which made us stiff. "Might as well deal with it. None of us here ain't stiff." I said. We broke camp and continued through the passage. There were dog-like creatures with long tongues that spat balls of lightning at us. Rogue had picked up some knives as a back-up weapon, and she threw them at the demons. I found a bestiary in our quest log and identified the demon as a Tainted subspecies, Afflicted. "Afflicted how?" grunted Amanda as she fought them. "It doesn't say." I reply as I stab an Afflicted in the neck with a javelin. One of the last Afflicted spat a ball of lightning at Jacob, who didn't move in time to miss it. He was knocked backwards and lay there knocked out. Serenity shouted "No!", and gave the beast Fireballs in the face multiple times until it died. She dashed over to Jacob and quickly said "I'm taking him back to camp. Sophia, Heather, come." Before any of us could change her mind, she Teleported out of the passage.

_~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~_

_Serenity, Sorceress_

The scene plays over and over in my head. He gets hit by the Afflicted Lightning, flies backwards, knocks himself out, then I use Fireball and kill the beast that hurt my Jacob. I've still got it's black blood on my left hand, my right hand holding Jacob's forearm. I'm trying to get to the Rogue Encampment but I know I haven't got enough mana. The Fallen are following us. Sophia, my mercenary, and Heather, Jacob's mercenary are holding them off as best as they can. I fumble in my belt for the blue mana potion I picked up from Corpsefire, my eyes blurry from tears. I drink and shudder. It tasted like stewed broccoli, bok choy, collard greens, spinach, cauliflower and sauerkraut with a hint of boiled okra. I Teleport as fast as I can. I'm in the Blood Moor now. I can see the encampment. One of the Rogues at the perimeter runs for Akara. I manage one more Teleport and fall down from exhaustion. I call my trunk, get inside and barely make it to the bed because I'm so tired. The instant my head hits the pillow I'm asleep. My dreams are haunted by nightmares of the Zann Esu elders, what they will say when they find out that I was only on Earth for a year of my banishment. They banished me because I combined Rathma magic with Zann Esu magic and created an Ice and a Lightning golem. Sophia wakes me up four hours later to tell me that Jacob's going to be alright and that he keeps saying my name. I wearily get up and walk to the door, only pausing to wash the blood off my hand. I walk out, leaning heavily on Sophia. Kasha greets me at the medi-tent with a whispered "He's gonna be okay." I nod silently. Upon entering the tent, I notice that some of Jacob's color has returned and he's conscious. Akara, Kasha, Heather and Sophia exit the tent, leaving me and Jacob alone. "Serenity, you saved my life. How can I repay you?" He asks while sitting up. "Like this." I whisper as I lean over and kiss him. "Will you be my girlfriend?" He asked. "I thought you'd never ask. Yes." I replied and kissed him again. Eighteen hours later we were back with the party in the Underground Passage.

_~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~_

Sunday June 10, 2012 _Amanda, Assassin_

Sometime last night Serenity, Sophia, Heather and Jacob found us in the passage. As we marched, Bryon kept pace with me which was odd. We didn't even know each other before this and now I think he likes me. He was staring at me. I caught him several times during the walking and when Therese called a rest, he sat beside me. I pointedly started a conversation with Rogue, hoping that he would back off a bit. He didn't. When we resumed walking through the passage, I cast Blade Shield around me to maybe get some peace. That worked. Whenever enemies came up, he made it a point to fight beside me. I think I've found a weakness in him, however. When I use my Blade Sentinel, Fury, or Shield, he backs off. I believe that he's fine with using knives and blades as long as they aren't used against him. I haven't found a weakness in Zach or Andrew. Andrew utilizes the Drunken Master style of hitting but not being hit, which has flaws but he works around them. Zach uses the typical Zakaruminite style of sword fighting with a holy sword, shield, armor and holy Auras. Therese is a little too trusting of djinn. Jacob and Serenity have the same weakness. They are too willing to die for other people. Diana is fighting with us and she is the ultimate warrior. I now see why the Amazons are highly valued as mercenaries. Rogue's flaws are her temper and her smart mouth, both of which can be her upbringing and her downfall. I know for a fact that Serenity already does not like Rogue because her flaws get on Serenity's nerves. According to my Viz-Jaq'taar master, my flaw is that I do not always think before I use Cobra Strike.

By the time we got out of the passage two hours after the rest, it was already dark but only mid-morning, around ten o'clock. I spoke "Would someone go back to the encampment to see if it's dark there? I don't think it's night time yet." A demon answered "Haven't you figured it out?" "Figured what out?" asked Therese. "The names of the plains are literal. That's why it's colder in the Cold Plains, the terrain's rough in the Stony Field, it's dark in the Dark Wood and why there's a lot of bloody fights in the Blood Moor." "Nice to know, but are you friend, foe or double agent?" inquired Zach. "None of the above. I'm Diana's djinn." We all looked at Diana for confirmation. She nods. "His name is Bartimaeus the third. If you want, you can have him." Zach asked "Bartimaeus, have you heard of a female djinn named Faia, often adopting the form of Cleopatra?" He glides forward and replies "Yeah, snotty little thing. Usually pretends to be good and then lie and kill her master. Don't summon her." "She's dead. Jacob and I killed her two nights ago with silver that Aunt Diana had." Therese said. "You did me a favor. Annoying little brat, she was. I swore the next time I saw her that I would either kill her or put her in tinier-than-tiny object." Bartimaeus said. "Tinier-than-tiny object?" I asked. "Strand of hair, fingernail, pebbles, things of that nature." The djinn replied. _"Since it's so dark I suggest that we try to cover the maximum amount of area possible with these Light Radius things."_ interrupted Therese. Bartimaeus snapped his fingers and little lights appeared where each of us would stand in the octagonal formation. I was farthest left with Bryon, his Hireling and minions to my north-east and Serenity and Sophia to my south-east. The djinn drew the short end of the stick and got the middle, where it was darkest. Within five minutes, we saw a Gargantuan Beast boss, Treehead Woodfist. As the Viz-Jaq'taar refrain from giving demons genders, _it_ was extra-strong, extra-fast and cold-enchanted. Bryon hit TW with Bone Spear and didn't back away in time so he got hit with the ice blast from the demon's Shiver Armor. Bryon turned blue and walked much slower. I cast my Fade skill so that even if I did get hit, the cold wouldn't be as bad. I ran, jumped and landed on the demon's back. I already knew that the best spot to hit was at the base of the neck. I charged my katars with Cobra Strike and drove them into TW's neck. I could feel energy returning but I only took as much as I needed to fill up my globe of heath. The rest I diverted to Bryon, who stopped shivering and looking blue. We continued walking. After dealing with TW's minions that were nowhere near as strong as their leader, we found the tree of Inifuss. Serenity said "This ancient tree has an aura of powerful magic about it." When she touched it, a knot on the trunk opened and the scroll of Inifuss fell out. I set up a Portal, and went through.

We appeared at the Rogue Encampment just as a prayer session to the Great Eye was finishing up. As soon as Akara was free, she translated the runes on the scroll for us. As near as I could figure, the Cairn stones were set up in a pentagram. Starting on the point at the top, the pattern went to the stone two stones away in a clockwise fashion. If Akara translated correctly, when we messed up the order the whole thing would reset and we would have to start over. We went back to the Stony Field to the Cairn stones. I started touching the stones in order. One by one they turned a pale sickly blue and began to hum. Once all five had been touched in the proper order, I jumped out of the star shape and not a moment too soon, either. Once I was out of the circle, lightning shot down from the sky and hit the stones to create a pentagram which opened a red portal. The trip through the crimson portal was a bit slower than through the blue portals. As I went through, I could have sworn I saw Rogue pick up something off the ground.

___~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~_

_Rogue_

The town of Tristram was, to say the least, smelly and disgusting. Crude torture devices were everywhere. The first one we encountered had a scantily clad woman with her wrists and ankles chained to the circle board and her innards ripped out. Judging by the piles of vomit in varying directions, the demons spun the woman till she was dizzy enough to puke and then ate her intestines, heart, etcetera. The Rogue archers and Serenity were very pale looking. The east side of the town had most of the corpses and instruments of torture, while the west side had most, if not all of the demons. Zach layered Prayer, Redemption and Vigor. Redemption was a deep red spiral, while Vigor was a circle of red-orange spheres that moved in a wavy pattern to create another, larger circle. In the center of town, a man was in a gibbet. Knowing we had no time to waste, Amanda jumped and clung to the cage. "Are you Deckard Cain?" she asked. He nodded weakly in response. The rope was tied in a square knot at the top of the cage. _"Jacob, grab the bottom of the cage and when she unties the knot, let him down slowly." _I ordered. _"Serenity, open a town portal, help Deckard Cain through it and if you want, stay in town. You don't look too good." _said Therese. The Zann Esu Sorceress shook her head and replied "I'll stay." She threw the scroll with a blue seal on it. When it hit the ground, blue smoke formed the portal which Cain used to get to the Rogue Encampment. We stayed behind to exterminate Tristram of every last demon. The only one that we had a problem with was Griswold, the former blacksmith of Tristram and if I remember correctly, Charsi's uncle. His only noticeable attribute was that he was cursed. Zach was doing much like Jacob did with Rakanishu except he was dodging Griswold's blows or taking them on his shield. Eventually Griswold landed a blow on Zach's jaw and very nearly broke it. That was my last straw. Casting Notice-me-not, I walked around to the other side of Griswold and whipped him on the shoulder. Griswold turned and that was the distraction that Zach needed. He plunged his sword into Griswold's exposed back. Griswold fell over and died. As he died, he looked at Zach and said "Thank you." As we checked the town for anything that we may have missed, Serenity tripped over a boy's peg-leg and we heard the unmistakeable jingle of gold. She moved the peg-leg a little bit and gold started spewing out. As we picked it up, a gang of goat-men tried to sneak up on us. Amanda had thrown down a Lightning Sentry and it fried the would-be attackers. We finished picking up the gold and then left through Serenity's portal. Once we'd come through the portal, everyone but me and Zach went to get some food that Warriv had made. The two of us had went to my trunk where a shouting match occurred about what had happened at Tristram. "I was doing fine until you interfered!" Zach yelled. "He almost broke your jaw and would have dealt you a worse blow if I _hadn't _distracted him, you idiot!" I shouted back. "I just didn't want you to get hurt more than you already had." I finished, quietly. The Prayer aura flared up as Zach moved closer and put his hands on my shoulders. "I wouldn't have. My jaw was already healing when you whipped him." he said. As a reply, I threw my arms around him and cried quietly into his shoulder. We broke apart long enough to sit down on the floor. Before I could resume crying in Zach's shoulder, he cupped my chin in his hand and kissed me. We broke apart slowly and I said "If we want to eat, we better go get some food before it all gets eaten." We climbed out of the trunk and went to get some food.

After we finished eating, Deckard Cain approached our party. "As a token of my gratitude, I will Identify items for you at no charge. Regrettably, I could do nothing prevent the disaster that devastated Tristram. I believe our worst fears have come to pass. Diablo the Lord of Terror walks the world again. As you may know, Diablo was recently slain below Tristram. His soul was placed into a Soulstone. Our hero deemed it necessary to smash the Soulstone in his skull to contain the demon. Alas, Diablo corrupted him and now our nameless hero is a Dark Wanderer. I believe that Diablo is headed to the Aranoch desert, perhaps to Tal Rasha's tomb to free his brother Baal." "That cannot be allowed to happen. Terror alone is bad but Terror and Destruction combined are worse and harder to defeat. And we haven't even dragged Hatred, Pain or Anguish into this mess yet." I said. "That is true but a battle like that is highly unlikely." Cain said. I fingered the black book that I'd picked up. As my comrades filed off, I asked Deckard Cain to Identify the book. He laid it against a scroll of Identification. After a few seconds red smoke appeared and left the words 'Moldy Tome' on the parchment. We opened it and it was moldy, almost unreadable and smelly. There was transactions, the names of people who died in the Countess' castle and how they died. That wasn't what horrified me. On the last page were these words written in black ink in an ancient script. "And so it came to pass that the Countess, who once bathed in the rejuvenating blood of a hundred virgins, was burned alive. And her castle in which so many cruel deeds took place fell rapidly to ruin. Rising over the buried dungeons in that god-forsaken wilderness, a solitary tower, like some monument to Evil, is all that remains. Her fortune was believed to have been divided among the clergy although some say that more remains unfound, still buried alongside the rotting skulls that bear mute witness to the inhumanity of the human creature." I found my allies and retold the Countess' story. Everyone wanted to go for the money and for the experience. Mostly for the money. We used the waypoint to get to the Dark Wood. Only thanks to Bartimaeus did we even find the path. The darkness made it that much harder to see the demons. When anyone used a Lightning skill, the path would light up a bit. Serenity finally got annoyed enough at the darkness that she made some changes to Blaze to turn it from fire to lightning. We walked into the Black Marsh with little opposition. Here it wasn't dark but the plants were black in color and smelled like fried Wendigo crap. (Don't ask how I know what it smells like. Believe me, it stinks!) The waypoint wasn't far from the entrance and the tower wasn't far from the waypoint. The first level was mostly clear except for a few bands of Devilkin. The second, third and fourth layers had Champion demons. We utilized the hit-and-run tactic. Or in Serenity's case the hit-and-teleport used his ravens and wolves to kill the Countess' minions. The rest of us walked into the room. She looked at me and hissed "_**Proditor.**_"

A/N If you want to know what The Countess said, find a latin to english translator and don't bug me about why the Countess called Rogue that. If I tell anyone, it will ruin the story. And _nobody_ likes a ruined story. I will however translate the French.

_**l'esprit parle**_- Mind speak

_**s'il vous plait**_- Please

_**Merci**_- Thank you

_**l n'y a pas de quoi**_- You're welcome


	2. I Never Said It Was Going To Be Easy

Disclaimer: Unless a really random chain of events occurs, BLIZZARD owns Diablo two and all the characters classes, not moi. Scratch that last bit, I own Rogue. Not the Sisters of the Sightless Eye Rogues, the thief.

A/N: I know there's not a Rogue Guild in Tristram and that you can't get what you what on the Malus quest reward, but this is called FanFiction _for a reason_! Since FFN doesn't like line breaks this now means change of narrator: ~O~O~O~O~O~O~. sentences in italics were telepathically spoken, anything bold and italicized is in another language. Most excerpts are from the Diablo II LOD Battlechest Manuals.

_Rogue_

"_Mine_!" I yelled telepathically. The Countess smirked cruelly. Her military pick whistled through the air and that was the Countess' mistake. My whip lashed out, caught it by the handle and flung it in the other room. She pulled out a dagger and I did the same. We fought for a few minutes until, on my mental command, Zach shot a Holy Bolt. The Countess shrieked in agony and dropped her dagger. I shot a Lightning Bolt from my whip and the Countess died. As she did, a secret section of the floor opened. Inside was a lot of gold, somewhere close to ten thousand pieces. We split it up and tried to get out of the castle quickly. It was gruesome and everything stank to high heaven. Akara approached us as we tumbled out of the portal. "I thought the tales of riches in there were nothing but lies. I am glad you found something of value in that death-trap. Would that our Sisters had been so fortunate..." She trailed off. "Anyway, I believe Warriv has something for you. He's been tearing his caravan apart since four o'clock this morning, looking for something. I think he mentioned the word charm?" "That's what woke me up then. Gr." grumbled Bryon. Amanda snickered. On my way to Charsi, Warriv dashed up and pressed something into my hand. He spoke quickly as if it was forbidden contraband. "This is a waypoint-finder. The needle always points to the nearest waypoint. Lord Jerhyn has forbidden them in Lut Gholein. He doesn't believe waypoints work because _he_ can't use the one in Lut Gholein." "Right. Thank you." I find Therese and give it to her, then I continue on my first objective; getting my knives to Charsi so that they could be fixed. "I have a quest for you. Find the rest of your party and I'll tell you." Charsi said mysteriously. Finding my allies wasn't hard, considering they were all listening to Deckard Cain tell the story of what really happened at Tristram. Once the story was over, I got them to Charsi so that we could get the quest. "When I fled the Monastery, I left behind my Horadric Malus, an enchanted smithing hammer, in the Barracks. If you can retrieve it for me, I will use its magic to strengthen your equipment. Any requests?" Therese quickly spoke. "Plus 10 to all skills for all of us, and plus 300 to gained experience also for all of us."

"Could you repair my knives? I plan on killing Andariel with these." I asked once my party had went off to prepare for the quest. "Sure. Do you want edges or tips?" asked Charsi. "Huh?" "Do you want the edges sharp and the tips dull, like for a slashing knife, or do you want the tips sharp and the edges dull like throwing knives?" "Can you do both on the same knife?" I asked. "Absolutely. The price is four hundred sixteen gold like that." As I handed over the gold, I heard Gheed mutter to himself "No business savvy."

I left my knives with Charsi and made my way over to Gheed. "Hello Gheed." I said, hoping to start a conversation. He turned toward me and replied "Hello Rogue. Care to gamble on an item? Maybe a rare or a unique will come up for ya, eh?" Gheed held up an amulet. "That's a Tangerine amulet of the Snake, with plus fifty to lightning skill damage and plus thirty-five to Mana based on character level." "Care to bet on it?" I smiled "One-seventy-five is my price." I offered. "Deal." Gheed Identified it and the amulet was exactly as I described. "Looks like I owe you some money. How did ya know with out identifying it?" "The amulet is orange and around the outside is a snake emblem. As for the specs on it, I was taken in and trained by the Rogue guild in Tristram before it got razed. That was one of the first buildings to be burnt. I was out on a mission to raid some treasury or another." "How did ya get out? Of Tristram, that is." Gheed asked. "I walked to a small village and Tyrael came with instructions to take me to Earth and put me in this party. My money please?" "Oh, of course." He said as he counted out one-hundred-seventy-five gold coins. "What can you tell me about Charsi, Gheed?" I asked. "Charsi's a sweet girl, but she's got no business savvy. As long as I keep filling her head with adventure tales, she'll never notice that I'm raking in gold hand over fist!" "Most of it from gambling, no doubt." I said to myself. "Possibly." He replied vaguely. I walked away to see if Akara knew where Andariel was hidden in the Monastery. She did, as I suspected. "Her lair is somewhere in the Catacombs, level four probably." said Akara. "The entrance to the catacombs is in the Cathedral, which is just through the Inner Cloister." As I headed to my trunk, Therese mentally ordered us to get some sleep as it was nearly nine at night.

~O~O~O~O~O~O

Monday, June 11, 2012, Bryon, Necromancer

As a Priest of Rathma, I had visions from time to time. That was how I wound up with this party. I'd had a vision nearly six years ago about the Prime Evils returning to Sanctuary. Thank Trang'Oul that I'd had the sense to tell the Rathman Elders that I'd seen myself personally engaged in combat and that the party I was to join started in another dimension called Earth. The only thing I didn't tell the Elders was that when the vision ended, I'd seen myself die by a machete in someplace dark and tainted by undead. I'd felt sure they were catacombs or sewers. And today, I was risking my neck over a smithing hammer that was in a dark monastery. I wasn't afraid of the dark or of what was in it. I wasn't even scared of dying. I was scared of what had killed me in the vision. Machetes, knives, or a blade of any sort. As long as it wasn't used against me, I was fine with it. Amanda had noticed this and used it to her advantage in keeping me away from her. She obviously doesn't like me as much as I like her as she has utilized Blade Shield around me. I had the upper hand however. Amanda clearly hated bone mages. I could conjure more mages than she can blades. Only in the Barracks was it evident that Amanda didn't like my mages.

We'd already activated the waypoint in the Outer Cloister and made it to the Barracks alive. Our mercenaries clearly hated seeing their home slowly dying. Alicia, Gwinnie, Ryann and Angelique begged to return to camp. Diana, Diana, her djinn, and Sophia stayed behind. (That's DI-ana, and DEE-ana. DI-ana is Therese's mercenary while DEE-ana is her aunt that's staying with us to help kill Andariel. Or is it the other way around? Hmm...) The Devilkin we faced made excellent skeleton mages. "Is it just me," Therese grunted as she stabbed a Devilkin Shaman. "Or did these thrice-cursed things get smarter?" "It's just you." chimed the boys, me included. "That proves my theory that boys can't see rhetorical questions and identify them as such." Therese answered. "Or that they choose not to." added Rogue. "Does every comment that come out of your mouth have to be sarcastic?!" snapped Serenity, truly angry this time. "No, not _every_ comment." replied Rogue sarcastically. Jacob put an arm around Serenity's shoulders and walked partially into the shadows. "She wants you to hit her, baby. She's baiting you, setting up a rivalry. Ignore her." said Jacob seriously. Serenity started to reply, but Jacob cut her off with a quick kiss. "I know what I'm talking about. Look at me, Bryon and Andrew. Rivals once but friends now. Just ignore her." "Alright. I'll try, but I can promise you no more than that." Serenity replied. Andrew opened a connection between me and him. "_I say ten gold that Rogue throws the first punch._" He challenged. "_You're on._" I replied and terminated the connection.

Zach could sense the holiness of the Malus so he led us toward it. In the room where the Malus was, there was a Boss monster, the Smith. We knew he'd be there, but we hadn't expected him to look so much like a clay golem that got painted green. Andrew's ravens pecked at the face and body of the Smith while Serenity peppered him with alternating cold and fire attacks. He killed the few skeleton warriors I'd made, so I kept my mages at a distance. I eventually cast Bone Prison, thinking that the Smith wasn't strong enough to knock it down. How wrong I was. He crushed a section and the whole Bone Prison crumbled. The Smith was getting annoyed by the fire and cold attacks. He walked toward Serenity, who teleported a few feet away. While she distracted the Smith, Jacob, Amanda and Zach attacked him from the back with their axes, katars, and sword respectively. I let my Clay Golem start attacking but he was reduced to gravel in a matter of seconds. The Smith finally caught up with Serenity and hit her in the stomach. She flew backwards and hit the wall with a sickening crunch. I knew some ribs had been broken, and moved to stand in front of Serenity. Therese did the same while hitting the Smith in the chest with Fire Arrows. Amanda laid down some lightning traps which did some serious damage. I cursed the Smith with Amplify Damage and let my mages have at him. We tried to avoid getting hit as much as possible. Amanda jumped backwards to avoid the Smith's fist, and landed in the arms of one of my Skeletal Mages. She shrieked and killed the skeleton. While the Smith was focused on Amanda, she jumped and somersaulted to land directly behind the Smith and stabbed him in the heart with Venom on her katars. In the background, Zach picked up the Malus and set up a Town portal.

Once Amanda killed the Smith, she pointed her bloody weapon at me and said through clenched teeth "Keep your skeletal minions away from me." I released my mages and answered "They can't harm you." "I don't care! Keep them away from me!" she hissed. "Does the name Ureh mean anything to you?" I asked. Amanda's face was surprised for an instant, then it regained its steely composure. "No." I knew she was lying, but I didn't want to risk getting attacked by pressing it further. Ureh was a small village in Kehjistan that got raided a rather lot. Ten years ago, the villagers set up an agreement with the Viz-Jaq'taar that if the assassins protected the village, the village Elders would allow the older assassins to use the village as a training ground for new assassins. One day, about three years after the agreement was settled, a band of rogue Necromancers attacked the town with huge numbers of skeletal mages. All the assassins died defending the town and the villagers died with them. Some young assassins were rumored to have survived and continued their training in the main Assassin temple but no one knows. What is certain is that the survivors hate bone mages as much as Amanda did _and_ that the bone Mages left the buildings alone and only killed the people.

We arrived at the Rogue Encampment at about seven in the evening. I pulled Amanda behind a tent to talk. "You're from Ureh. That's why you hate my mages. You survived the rogue Necromancer attack." Here she looked at me in confusion. "Rogue Necromancer?" "They didn't follow the Teachings of Rathma. We killed all of them the month after Ureh fell." I explained. Amanda let her katars fall to the ground. "I was trained in Ureh. I buried every last person that died during the attack and I lived there alone after I finished my training. I've hated skeleton mages ever since I was twelve." She sat down and pulled her knees to her chin. I sat cross-legged. "You don't have to tell me." I said quietly. "It's better if I get it out. No one has ever asked so I never said I was from Ureh. I got cursed with Terror on a job once and I saw the Skeletal Mages taking it over. I've never worked with a necromancer so I never had to deal with Skeletal Mages after Ureh was exterminated." She began silently crying at the harsh memories. I seized my chance while I still had it. "Amanda, will you be my girlfriend?" "You're asking me when there are much better looking girls out there?" She asked doubtfully. "There are no girls out there that are better looking than you." I replied. "Yeah, I'll be your girlfriend." Amanda answered. I press her hand to my lips quietly. We stand and Amanda hugs me, whispering "Thank you." "For what? I didn't do anything." I say modestly. "You made me realize that not all Necromancers use their minions for evil purposes." she replies, smiling. I smile back and cradle her face in my hand for a moment. "We need to see about Serenity, see if she's okay. I know some ribs were broken but I don't know if anything else was." I said quietly. "Kay, let's go." said Amanda, taking my hand. We walked hand-in-hand to Akara's clearing, where Rogue said "Ah, the two lovebirds finally arrive." "Eavesdropper." returned Amanda. It was a statement, not a question. "Who, me?" asked Rogue, looking around. "Yes, you, now shut up!" Serenity snapped weakly. Akara gave Serenity a healing potion and had Zach activate his Prayer aura. It seemed to work as Serenity's pained expression relaxed and finally she fell asleep. We went to go eat. Jacob and Zach stayed behind, the former because he didn't want to be very far from his girlfriend, the latter to keep the aura going. I promised to bring them some food as some of the Rogue archers had slaughtered four deer earlier in the day.

When I did bring their food, Zach had just sent his mercenary to get Charsi. She approached us and saw Zach with the Malus in his hand. "Thank you, paladin. I'll get started on your weapons right away. If you don't want any other skills on them, they'll be ready some time in the next two days." "That will be fine." said Zach as we handed over our weapons. Serenity woke up for a moment to tell Jacob to give her leather armor to Charsi. He pulled it off as gently as he could. Beneath the tight armor, she wore a typical green sorceress costume. Her ribcage was taped so that her armor could give a little support but not much. "When will she wake, Priestess Akara?" Jacob asked quietly. "When she's fully healed." replied Akara. "Jacob, you need some crash time, man. I'll wake you if anything happens" I said after Akara left. He shook his head. Zach's voice was quiet but firm. "If it helps, Jacob, Serenity will be awake not long after you will." Jacob nodded and stretched out on the ground. In a few minutes he was asleep. I found Amanda, Therese, Diana and Rogue in front of the campfire. They looked up as one. "Is the sorceress going to be okay?" Diana asked. I nodded. Relief washed over their faces.

They stood as one and walked to their trunks except Amanda. She waited till all of the other girls were in their trunks, then she stood and walked to me. We kissed in the moonlight. After we broke apart, Gheed wolf-whistled. Warriv shouted "Gheed, if you value your head, I wouldn't do that again! Those two are a dangerous couple if you tick 'em off." "Thank you, Warriv. Good night, Bryon." Amanda said quietly. She walked to her trunk and I walked back to Akara's clearing. Zach had seen it all from his box that he was sitting on. "You two make a good couple." he remarked as he showed me a rough sketch that he'd drawn of us kissing. "Yeah. How did you do it that fast?" I asked. "I've been drawing couples for years. Usually they didn't know they were being drawn. I'd quickly sketch them, draw all the lines over on a clean piece of paper and then give it to the couple. Most of them were surprised that I did it so quickly and so well. Very few tore theirs up and told me to bug off. And plus, I've got a photographic memory, so if the people move on, I can still finish the drawing." "Mm. Did you know about Sanctuary before you came?" "No. Well, sort of. All the men in my family were paladins, including my father. He was killed three months before I was born. My mother prayed for a week nonstop to have an angel take her and me to somewhere other than Sanctuary. She told me of my father, of the demons he fought, of the people he helped... She didn't want me to become a paladin." Zach trailed off, lost in thought. "I've been trained as a Priest of Rathma since I was seven." I yawned. "Either way, I'm going to sleep." I leaned against a crate and crashed out.

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

When I woke up, it was about five-thirty in the morning. My neck was stiff and I could tell I wasn't going to fall back asleep. I stretched, noticing that even asleep, Zach still had his drawing tablet in his hand, the pencil fallen to the ground. I considered looking at Zach's drawings, but decided against it. As I walked over to the fire to try and revive it without resorting to magic, I saw out of the corner of my eye a shadow that was following me. I quickly turned and caught Amanda's fist as she tried to hit me. "Crap, I must be getting slower." She said. "It pays to be observant in the art of Necromancy. I saw your shadow." I replied. "Anyway, why are you up so early?" "The same could be asked of you." answered Amanda. "I woke up with out a true purpose." I said, hoping the conversation wouldn't turn into a verbal jousting match. "I always wake up this early." replied Amanda. We kissed for a moment. Warriv woke up, took one look at us kissing, grunted and went back to sleep. Amanda laughed at him. "He's usually up before I am. On the occasions when he's not..." Amanda leaped lightly on top of a wagon and pulled a long piece of cloth from her pocket. She ran it over Warriv's face. He snorted and rolled over. This repeated twice more until Warriv said sleepily "Fine Amanda, I'm up." She giggled and did a double back flip off the wagon to land on her feet beside me. Warriv began poking at the fire and heating it up for breakfast. I summoned a Fire Golem to get the fire going hot enough to cook on. Warriv heated up leftovers from the deer and something that barely passed as oatmeal. In groups of twos and threes, the thirty something Sisters and our party woke up and got breakfast. Jacob woke up paranoid. "Whoa buddy, calm down. Nothing happened during the night. The demon's didn't raid. Calm down." I said. "Are you sure?" Jacob asked. I played the innocent card. "Would I have let you sleep through a raid?" "Yes." He said, getting to his feet. "And let you miss all the action? Never." I answered. He lightly punched me. Serenity said sleepily "Can someone get this confounded tape off? And before you even ask, Jacob I'm fine. Sleepy, but otherwise okay." I moved out of the way to allow Akara into the clearing. She began pulling the bandages off Serenity. Close to ten minutes later, all the bandages were off and you could still see where the Smith had hit her. Serenity was grateful when Therese said that we weren't going to fight that day unless a raid came up. Charsi wasn't finished with our weapons yet anyway.

I went down to my library to read on assassins. I had never been much of a history person, but this was something I was interested in. The book I chose was titled _The Warrior Clans of Sanctuary_. The chapter on assassins read thus:

'In the third century, two brothers rose to dominance from within the ranks of the Vizjerei; their names were Horazon and Bartuc. Both were equally powerful and ambitious, and both were fascinated by the power one could obtain through the practice of Demonic Magic; however, the two differed in their views regarding how best to study demons. While Horazon viewed demons as a great source of power, he felt that in order to use that power best, you must harness a demon and bend him to your will. His brother, on the other hand, grew to sympathize with the demonic powers and felt (with no small influence from the demons) that the demonic forces were best understood by allying with the Hellish authorities so their secrets could be shared freely, and that is exactly what he did. Their diametrically opposed philosophies caused a great schism that split the ranks and tore the Vizjerei clan apart.

When at last their fierce rivalry culminated in inevitable violence, the combatants learned too late that they both had been played as pawns by the demonic host. The ensuing battle was so great, it set the very firmament aflame, and when it was complete and the stillness of remorse was all that remained, Bartuc lay dead, Horazon had vanished into self-imposed exile, and the Vizjerei had learned a costly lesson. The small surviving group of sorcerers, the remnants of the once-great Vizjerei clan resolved forevermore to spurn Demonic Magics and set about renewing their studies in the Elemental Magics. To ensure that a similar tragedy could never happen again, they formed a secret order whose sole purpose was to police the mage clans, destroying corruption wherever they found it. This was the birth of the Viz-Jaq'taar, the Order of the Mage Slayers- otherwise known as the Assassins.

Knowing that such an order might itself be corrupted if exposed to the power of magic, the Vizjerei deemed it of the utmost importance that these Assassins maintain the purest, most focused minds. They should live in meditation and draw their power from within, not from external forces that could easily mask demonic interference. To this end, the Order would not employ the magic arts directly; rather they would use ingenious devices and enchanted items to battle those possessing great magical powers. To further campaign against demonic corruption, they concentrated on honing their the natural martial abilities of their bodies, both physical and mental.

Because the Order remains veiled in secrecy, few people, even among the mages, know more than rumors about this mysterious organization. Their reputation has been one shrouded in ambiguity. Legends of their stalwart vigilance and the widespread fear of their retribution, have kept many mages away from the temptations of corruption, so actual sightings have been rare. However with the reemergence of the Three, and subsequent in crease in demonic manifestations in the world, the Order has shown a greater public presence of late.

**Traits and Abilities **

Assassins do not employ the magic arts directly; rather, they use enchanted items that mimic elemental powers, which can function autonomously. To avoid potential corruption, they also focus on the natural abilities of the mortal body- powers of the mind and unarmed combat. The Assassins have trained extensively in the use of an exotic group of weapons: sets of metal blades and claws that strap on to the wrists. They have expertly the use of these weapons in their martial arts, and when wielding one in each hand, an Assassin can deliver a devastating double attack. Even the most novice of Assassins is a past master of infiltration and no lock has been made that she cannot circumvent. Hence, an Assassin needs no key to open locked chests.'

"And now you know how I got in your locked stash. It's a chest. Anyway, here's your weapon from Charsi. Therese says to get topside, the Fallen and Carvers are attempting to raid and you need to make minions." said Amanda handing me my bone wand. I grumbled a bit about why the demons had to raid at seven-thirty in the morning but climbed out of my trunk and on to the battlements. There were a hundred Fallen and Carvers apiece and a lot of shamans. The bridge over the Tristram River forced the demons into a bottleneck which made it easier for the Sisters to pick them off with their arrows. Therese, Jacob, Zach, Rogue, Amanda and Andrew were fighting the demons hand to hand as well as my minions. The demons often retreated so I stopped creating skeletons and concentrated on maintaining a Bone Wall behind the demons to force them to stay fairly close together and well within archery range. The demons tried to scale the walls of the encampment with make-shift ladders but Amanda shot that idea to pieces with a few well placed Lightning Sentries. Nearly an hour later all the Fallen and Carvers were dead and we'd gained twelve levels. The Sisters suffered minor injuries and few casualties.

_Zach, Paladin_

Two hours later, Ryann and Gwinnie approached us with the information that they could give us the waypoints in the Jail and the Inner cloister. "How? You can't exactly hold our hands and take us there." asked Rogue. "No, but there are loopholes. It involves us and the waypoints and a couple town portal scrolls..." replied Ryann, grinning. "You take the waypoint here to there, set up a Tepee, we go through, get the waypoint and return to town, while you go to the next waypoint and do the same thing. It's practically fool proof." I said. "Smart one." Gwinnie. "I'll give one-hundred gold per waypoint if you follow through on this, but what about the waypoint on the second level of the Catacombs?" Therese asked. The two mercenaries exchanged looks. Finally Ryann spoke. "The only one who's been down that far won't leave camp until Andariel's dead and her minions disposed of. And it's not Captain Kasha or Charsi." "Lady Akara." I stated. "Aye. She won't leave camp for anything even though she's just a good a shot or better as the rest of us. The sight of the Monastery pains her too much." replied Gwinnie. "We do have some maps that many of the warriors made when they went down there, though." Kasha walked up and handed Therese four scrolls. "Make sure someone in your party survives to get these back to us. We really don't want to have to find your body and search for these."

We all followed Therese to her trunk's apartment where she, Serenity and Rogue worked on copying the maps. Bryon snapped his fingers and muttered "Gemini." The maps copied themselves onto the parchment the girls were using to copy it by hand. "Thank you, Bryon. Now get your butts over here and help us find the path on the map." snapped Serenity. "Girls are better at mazes than boys are. It's been scientifically proven." he said. "Yeah, and I invented the lightbulb." said Therese. "Sure sweetheart. Whatever you wanna think." replied Andrew. "Sarcasm, Andrew. Learn to identify it." Therese returned. "Who says I haven't and just don't show it?" asked Andrew. "You and Mandan would get along so well. Particurally at verbal jousting." grumbled Therese. "I know." He replied. "You don't even know who I'm talking about." She snapped. "Or do I?" Andrew returned. "Andrew, SHUT UP!" shouted all the girls at the same time. And when I say all the girls, I include the mercenaries and Diana. The sound echoed in the metal trunk. "I found the path." said Rogue after a bit. "Trace it on the map and try to find any suspiciously big room that is likely to have a waypoint on the second layer." Serenity said from her position on her back, trying to levitate a snowball without it covering her face in snow. She'd already done that twice. We'd laughed, we being the boys watching, and paid for it. The couch we were sitting on was covered in snow, then she shot some lightning sparks towards it. Therese looked at us and whispered something in Serenity's ear. Serenity nodded, then froze the snow to make it a big block of ice. Jacob was in the middle and gave a huge War Cry which shattered the ice. "I figured he could do that. The spells were meant for Jacob. The rest of you were just in the way." Serenity told us. She pulled some yellow potions from her belt and tossed them at us. "Thawing potions. They should defreeze you." "Thanks baby, but I don't need it. Natural Barbarian and Druid resistance to the cold. Ensteig and Scosglen bestow at least that upon their children." said Jacob. "Drink it anyway." muttered Andrew. "How 'bout you just give them to me and I'll stash them somewhere." I muttered. "If you all are ready, we'll set up the waypoints."said Ryann after Rogue finished with the maps. "Fine." Therese replied. Ryann and Gwinnie exited the trunk and we followed. As promised, they set up the Teepee's, we got the waypoints, and the Sisters got two hundred gold.

We had finished clearing the Inner cloister when Rogue asked Serenity "How many did you kill with your petty elemental magic?" "Enough." Serenity replied with an angered expression. "How many is that?" Rogue said. Serenity dodged the question and said to no one at large "I'm going back to town and getting some potions." She threw a Town portal and went though. Rogue followed her. I could barely hear Serenity shout "Hostile!" They returned through the portal and started fighting. Serenity showered Rogue using Blizzard. Rogue cast Crack of Lightning and Serenity cast Energy Shield before it hit her. She swung her staff like a baseball bat to hit Rogue on the side. Serenity punched Rogue and Bryon muttered "Pay up, Andrew." Rogue was stuck on the defensive with no hope of winning the fight. Serenity alternated between Blizzard and Lightning until Rogue died. Serenity used her knife to cut Rogue's ear off. Serenity looked at me, blood lust in her eyes and asked "Want to avenge your girlfriend?" "Not particularly. I pick fights I know I can win." "_Zach, set up a town portal so I can get my stuff off my corpse._" "_Rogue?_" I asked telepathically. "_Yeah._" "Holy Messiah, hast thou resurrected her?" I asked. "_Aye. Recall the prophecy, Paladin._" He replied. I set up a portal when Serenity wasn't looking and had Rogue cast Notice-me-not on her. Rogue picked up her stuff and released the spell. Therese was unsurprised to see Rogue; I don't think anything can surprise that girl. If Serenity noticed Rogue, she didn't give any inclination she knew or cared. Therese had me lead the party into the Monastery Cathedral. Once we entered, Diana and Therese cursed, drew their javelins and shouted to the demons "We walk the path of Zerae! We shall grant you death as quick and fierce as her lightning storms on the Twin Seas!" As one Therese, Diana, Serenity and Rogue lashed out with Lightning Fury, Chain Lightning and Crack of Lightning. Once we got over the initial shock of seeing the lightning cast as one spell, (pun intended) the melee fighters, Amanda, Jacob, Bryon's minions, and I, killed whatever demons were leftover. "This cathedral is not what it once was." I said as I shot Holy Bolts toward the desecrated altar.

Rogue silently led us down a spiral staircase to the Catacombs. The first thing that we saw were hellholes. "Don't touch anything that looks like boiling blood. They're hellholes. Proof that the Monastery is changing from holy to hellacious." I ordered. The mercenaries cast Inner Sight so we could see farther. I pulled a torch from its bracket and handed it to Rogue. She led us into a band of Arachs, huge spiders with menacing jaws with poison blood and saliva. They were easily felled but not without most of us getting poisoned. I activated the Cleansing aura to help reduce the length of the poisoning. It was still a shock when you got poisoned for the first time though. The poison coursed through your veins making them bulge and turning your skin green. It wasn't pretty and Serenity nearly fainted when she was poisoned. It took us nearly three hours to walk down to the fourth layer of the Catacombs because even with maps, they were confusing. We were lost several times and had to backtrack to the waypoint at least twice on the second level.

Versus the first three levels having multiple rooms and corridors, the fourth layer had only three rooms. The first room was more of a hallway and had no demons. The second room was full of Afflicted, Tainted, Devilkin, and bone archers. The Sisters had stacked barrels so we could hide behind them and recover for a minute before continuing the fight. I used Sacrifice to eliminate the Shamans and some of the little demons that followed them like a dog follows his master. Amanda nearly died trying to kill some Champion Tainted that were immune to physical damage and lightning as well as fire. Bryon set off a Poison Nova and if it didn't kill the remaining demons, it poisoned them and made then easier to kill.

Their mistress Andariel was very different. She was nude, except for a loincloth and a chain attached to two very small metal disks covering her breasts. She had chicken-like feet and spat poison in balls and in a nova as well as having six spike things; one pair over her shoulders, one over her bust and one pair around her abdomen. She was nearly twelve feet tall, but the ceiling was at least another eight feet above her head. Andariel saw Rogue and This is what she said in Latin translated to English to the best of my ability "You are a traitor! You shall have a fiery death in the deepest, hottest part of Hell that is possible!" Rogue shouted back "You'll go to Hell before I will! And there's a good chance I won't follow you!" "Beware Anguish, we walk the path of Zerae! We do not give up!" yelled Therese, gesturing to Diana. The mercenaries simply stated "You will not commit any more sacrilege to our ancient Monastery!" "My vines shall make a feast of your corpse." snapped Andrew. Jacob roared an ancient barbarian war cry and yelled "Your mother was a chicken, your father was a Cerberus and your sister was Medusa! And you're still ugly!" Bryon and Serenity shouted "Fire was your birth and so shall be your death." "May the Heavens curse thee."I stated. Andariel's reply was "I shall kill all of you." "Bring it." She spat some poison. Amanda distracted Andariel while Serenity circled her with Blaze. I stacked Cleansing and Holy Fire and attacked Andariel's spikes with a standard attack. One came off but the one above it stabbed my right shoulder. Jacob saw this and hacked at it with his ax. Anyone that had a fire attack was using it. Andariel was visibly weakening even though she was still spewing out poison.

Therese left herself exposed for a second and Andrew tackled her, just before she could be stabbed by Andariel's remaining spike. Andrew was stabbed through his midsection. Serenity cast one more Meteor and Andariel exploded in a column of fire. Andrew's body was thrown clear of the blast, to land at Therese's feet. A town portal opened and everyone except me and Therese turned towards it. The rest of the party went on through while Therese sank to her knees in front of Andrew's body. She looked at me and asked while fighting back tears "Why did he take the shot? He should have let me be stabbed." "He saved your life yes, but he's probably back in town. Fiacla-Gear, the first druid, has likely resurrected him." She looked at me."One way to find out." I helped her stand and opened a healing potion. I poured it on my shoulder and clenched my teeth. My shoulder kitted itself back together and stung for a minute. We walked through the portal to find Andrew just about to walk though on the other side. Therese flung herself at him, crying and whispering "Thank you for saving me." He awkwardly patted her back and said "It's okay." "Therese Narcissa," said Diana. Therese broke away from Andrew to look at her aunt. "Princess Diana Narcissa," answered Therese in the traditional Amazonian greeting. "I was sent by Queen Hippolayta to see if Aruba's accounts of you were accurate. They were. You are a fine Amazon with good skills. You must now wear the traditional Amazonian armor and hairstyle." "I accept the responsibilities and deities of an Amazon warrior. Anyone that insults the Amazonian temples shall be punished in a way that I see fit." Therese replied. She and Diana went to her trunk for a few minutes. When they came back out, Therese was wearing red Amazonian armor and had a grand matron bow in her hand with her brunette hair pulled up in a very high ponytail. I barely heard Therese tell Diana "Convey my thanks to Queen Hippolayta." We assembled to tell the camp that Andariel was dead. Deckard Cain congratulated us and said that he would be coming with us to Lut Gholein. The Sisters brought out wine, cheese, assorted meats and bread in a celebratory feast to commemorate the death of Andariel.

Wednesday June 13th,

When we all woke up and had breakfast, Warriv said "The caravan is prepared. We may now journey to Lut Gholein." We let Gwinnie, Samantha and Ryann stay with the Sisterhood but Alicia, Sophia, Angelique, and Diana insisted on coming with us. We piled in the wagons and started towards the Monastery. The demons had headed to the underground caves and didn't show themselves. The death of Andariel had visibly reduced the imp's courage. Not that they had much of it before we'd killed her. We made it to the Monastery where Akara, Charsi and Kasha opened the wrought-iron gates to the Rogue Pass, which was the only way through the Tamoe mountains. Ahead lay the Aranoch Desert and Lut Gholein.

**Yay, another chapter! All those non-reviewers, please review. Thank you to Emmelyn Cindy Mah for the review and thank you to Starscream's-Demon-3 for the favorite! Hoping to get another Chapter out sometime in the next month ½ to 2 months but that may not happen due to a million other thing going on in my life. Next chapter entitled; Out of the Rain and into the Sand.**


	3. Out of the Rain and Into the Sand

Disclaimer. I don't own Diablo II. Blizzard does. But, who owns the owners? Hmm?

A/N: since FFN doesn't like line breaks this means change of narrator: ~O~O~O~O~O~O~, _telepathically spoken_, _**in another language**_. Rating has gone up to T for mild cussing since bastard is apparently a cuss word. Thank you Emmelyn Cindy Mah for giving me the inspiration for Therese and Jerhyn!

Saturday, June 30, 2012 _Therese, Amazon_

The trip through the desert was long, boring and hot. Even though I had lived in Lut Gholein up until I was twelve, I had forgotten exactly how hot the Aranoch desert was. While the rest of my party stayed inside the wagon, I stayed on top of it always scanning the horizon for a) Lut Gholein and b) demons. Two weeks after we left the Khanduras, we sighted Lut Gholein but we didn't enter my birth-city until three days later. We were greeted by a Desert Paladin mercenary who shouted "Halt! Who goes there?" Warriv replied "It is I, Warriv the trader and my caravan." "Their names?" The mercenary questioned. I spoke up. "Therese, Amazon." One by one we introduced ourselves. "Therese, Lord Jerhyn will want to see you and your party. Ah, here he comes now." The mercenary said. My party bowed in respect to Jerhyn. He looked hard at me and upon recognizing me said "Nay milady Teresa, you need not bow to me. We are of equal standing, no?" He kissed my hand in formal respect. I wrenched it out of his hand. "We were of equal standing. I no longer call you brother. I left with Mandan and Aruba to escape to escape you, to escape being betrothed to a man I never loved and to escape court life. I may have been only twelve summers but I knew I had to leave." "Our father is dead and so is Lord de Seis, I believe." replied Jerhyn. "Is that supposed to make me feel better in any way? You only agreed to betroth me to him so you wouldn't have any opposition for the throne! Scosglen was far enough away that you wouldn't have to worry about if I would come back. You knew that I would be killed if I tried to escape!" I yelled angrily. "Teresa, people are going to start watching. Please calm down." Jerhyn said smoothly. "Let them watch and gossip, I DON'T CARE! I'm not a princess anymore! I am not afraid of people gossiping about me like you are and our father was and his father before him and his father before him!" I shouted. I didn't wait for his reply but instead, I ran fast as I could into Lut Gholein. Only one person I knew in this entire city could calm me down after a fight like that, and that was Fara. She was the healer and blacksmith in Lut Gholein as well as a former paladin of Zakarum. I barely heard Jerhyn ask Jacob "Is she always like this?" Jacob replied "Only if you tick her off. You're gonna have to go to Hell and back to get her to accept your apology...Figuratively speaking, that is." "Mm-m." my former brother said.

I ran straight to Fara's shop and found her teaching an apprentice how to attach an ax-blade to the handle. She sent him home and came to greet me at the door. "Therese, it's been so long! Like I said before you left, Lut Gholein's princess will come back, but not in a way we expect. What happened between you and your princely brother?" I explained the whole scene in as much detail as I could remember. To my surprise, Fara began laughing. "Something like this was bound to happen! I don't believe anyone has refused Jerhyn before. If I know you and your brother as well as I think I do, he's going to try to apologize and you're not going to accept." "No, I'm not." I answered. "Which means that he's going to be offended and is not going to allow you to fight. Then he will force you to assume your rank as princess." "If he does that then I'm going to do what I didn't have time to do when I left with Aruba and Mandan. I will cut myself off from the Royal family." "Self-imposed exile?" asked Fara. "No! I will fight with my allies and I will _not _wander from place to place trying to make a living off what people are kind enough to give me!" I replied. "And by the way, could you repair my javelins? Most are blunted or broken from defending the caravan." I asked. "I'll do you one better. How about a maiden spear? They're heavier and slower than javelins but they're a lot stronger and more powerful." She pulled out a spear that I had seen a million times or more. "This was Aruba's weapon when she first came to Lut Gholein. That was well over twenty-five years ago, back when she was still fighting demons and hadn't noticed Mandan yet." She said. I laughed, trying to imagine my adoptive mother without Mandan at her side. I hefted the sapphire-and-ruby gemmed spear. To my surprise, I was well over strong enough to use it. I asked Fara how much it cost and she said "I didn't buy it from Aruba. She told me to give it to you when you came back to Lut Gholein." "Thank you." I said as I walked out the door with it. I called my trunk and put it by Fara's shop. I went down to the fourth layer and started a simulation fight using the demons that were in the Aranoch Desert.

~O~O~O~O~O~O

_Andrew, Druid_

Was Therese angry? Yes. Was she so angry she bought a new weapon and started training with it? Yes. Was I surprised? No. Out of all the other guys in the party, Jerhyn picked me to take him to Therese. We found her in a simulation fight against the various demons in the desert. She evidently heard us coming because she ended the simulation and turned to face the door we had just came through. Jerhyn started to speak but I hissed "Wait till she puts her spear down! Unless you want to be stabbed, that is." Therese set her spear down and asked "What do you want, Prince Jerhyn?" "I came to apologize, Princess Teresa." "I do not accept your apology, Prince Jerhyn." The way the two of them were using formalities made the room feel as stiff as a starched collar. "If you do not accept my apology, Princess Teresa, then as your superior in hierarchy I forbid you from fighting with your allies." snapped Jerhyn. "You _will_ be the Princess of Lut Gholein." "If so then I claim the throne as I am two years your senior. However, as I said outside the city, I am not a princess anymore. I accept the position for a minute, to say this: I am formally cutting myself off from the Royal family. I am not allowed to be betrothed, I have no say in the city council's politics, and I am no longer your sister. We may share the same father, but I am not your sister any more, Jerhyn. And you are no longer my brother. It is I who is sorry. Leave my presence." Therese said calmly but her voice was beginning to crack. She turned away from him. Jerhyn harrumphed and left her trunk.

As soon as he left, Therese began to cry softly. I comforted her best as I could when all of a sudden, she screamed. Loudly. It wasn't a scream of pain but of anger and annoyance. The kind of scream that signifies that someone deserves to die but no one is going to. She resumed crying on my shoulder and she mumbled "You shouldn't have had to see that." "It's okay. Shh, shh, shh." I pulled her off me so I could see her reaction to what I was going to say. "You were betrothed to Titus de Seis?" "Yes. Why?" she sniffled. "That's my cousin. My dead uncle's oldest son. Titus was corrupted by Diablo, became an Oblivion Knight. If he were still human, he'd be about forty. He was very brutal. He loved torturing things, dissecting them while they were still alive with no anesthetic. It's fairly obvious why you didn't want to marry him." "We met just once, at some ball or another when I was eleven. He spent the entire evening dancing with me, flirting with me, talking to me and trying to get me to return his affections. I _hated _it." Therese grimaced at the memory and continued "Jerhyn saw this and took advantage of it. We were betrothed the next day. The marriage was supposed to be when I was sixteen. At midnight on my twelfth birthday, Aruba, Mandan and I had Drognan set up a portal to Earth. I can safely assume that everything was in an uproar the next day." "Well yeah, the princess, everyone's favorite amazon at the time and the most popular merchant disappear all on the same night. Someone was bound to notice." I said sarcastically. Therese smiled. "Everyone in the city was questioned. Drognan lied to protect us. Even if Jerhyn knew that, he values Drognan too much to give him more than a reprimand." "You hope he values me that much." A new voice said. From the shadows came a man wearing priestly robes, but even I could tell he was no priest. He was a Vizjeirei mage. "Andrew, this is Drognan." Therese said, dragging me forward to meet him. "Come here, Therese." They momentarily embraced and I felt jealousy wash over me. I wasn't about to let on how I felt so I kept my sound output at an inaudible growl. "Have you got the symbol yet?" Drognan asked. "What symbol?" I ask. "The symbol that marks me as an amazon." she said as she pulled off the armor on her left arm. "I used my arm-guard or bracers to cover it, so that's why you never saw it." She said, before I could even ask.

Therese yanked off the last piece of armor and blue pi symbol with a trident over it and two waves crossing the trident appeared on her forearm. "When you refused Jerhyn, you should have shown him this to let him know you were serious. He's laughing at you in the palace, milady. He's saying 'She's foolish to cut herself off but when I told the family, they're all on her side.' Your relatives are living at the palace now, milady. I suggest you and your escort go to see the prince during lunch when you've got the most amount of other people to see and accept the symbol." "Thank you Drognan." said Therese as he teleported away. "Your escort?" I ask. "You." She replies while pulling off the rest of her armor and pulling on a full-length traveling habit. She throws one at me. "Screw you, I ain't wearin' that." "Morph then." she sensibly replies. I smile at her and oblige. As a werewolf, I can tell where everyone's been in a room just from sniffing the floor. I find Jerhyn's scent and follow it. Therese pulls the hood up and follows me. I open a connection between us two. "_Even Jerhyn's scent is angry_." I comment. "_Huh? Elaborate on that thought_." She replies. "_A person's scent gives clues to their mood. Jerhyn's is anger. Yours is calm but also scared_." I said. "_And yours?_" Therese asked. I gave her a wolfish grin and replied "_Rabid_." "_Smartaleck._" "_I know I am_." With that we arrived at the Palace. The mercenary guard, Kaelan stops us on the steps. Therese says "I am a weary traveler with news for Lord Jerhyn that I must deliver in person. The wolf is my companion and doesn't bite...much." I growl for effect. Therese lays a soft hand on my shoulder. Kaelan shows us inside where servants take us to the dining hall.

Jerhyn stops eating momentarily to ask "What news do you have traveler?" We walked to the center of the circular room and, after she removed her hood, she held her arm up for everyone to see. The people gasped. In a thundering voice she cried "At one time you all knew me as Princess Teresa. I disappeared when I was twelve. I am no longer Teresa nor am I a princess. I am Therese and I am an Amazon!" With that she clapped her hands above her head. Her cloak disappeared and her armor and spear appeared on her body and in her hand. Her bow was slung on her back with a quiver of arrows. She looked beautiful in a frightening Amazonian way. "Are there any who object to my cutting myself off from the family? I recognize my mother." "My daughter, all I have to say is be careful. You were always better at slaying demons than at diplomacy." Therese nodded in acknowledgment. "I recognize my brother, Jerhyn." "I object you cutting yourself off and becoming an Amazon." He snapped. "Objections noted. I recognize my uncle Rondor." "I do not object to you cutting yourself off, I object to you coming here with Aruba's weapon and Mandan's amulet." "I wear them because I respect Aruba and Mandan. They were more of a family to me than any of you were. They weren't cold and aloof to my troubles." She looked at her uncles, aunts and cousins. "They weren't away all the time, come home for a week and then head back out." Her mother got glared at. "They weren't always drunk and beating my mother and me." She glares at her father's portrait. She looked directly at Jerhyn as she said this next bit. "They didn't betroth me to a man I barely knew AND HATED!" she shrieked. I growled again. "That is why I am cutting myself off. So I don't have to deal with this crap." she snapped. We turned and walked out of the palace leaving everyone inside stunned.

We walked to _The Troubadour_, a popular bar run by a woman named Atma. We made our way to the door when someone inside shouted "No dogs allowed in here." "_Let me handle this_." I said. "_Don't do anything rash_." Therese replied. I morphed back to a human and asked "How about a tame werewolf?" "Long as you don't morph in here, you should be fine." yelled a barmaid over the noise. Carelessly adjusting my bearskin cloak that I didn't really need, I offered my arm to Therese and together we made our way to a corner table. A drunk man caught her by the arm and yanked her away from me. "Ditch the werewolf and come play with me, darling." he said, putting his face up to hers. What happened next made the whole bar get quiet. "When Hell freezes over, perhaps. But not today." Therese slapped the man and held a knife to his throat. Everyone in the building that carried a knife checked where they stashed it, including me. We all knew she hadn't been carrying a knife before she walked in the door. I didn't find mine. Then reality hit me. She knew that something like this would happen, so as we were walking, she pick-pocketed my knife. "Don't touch the Amazon. Both me and my boyfriend can kill you at least twenty-five different ways. And that's not even being creative." Therese snapped. "Carry on." "Can I have my knife back?" I asked once we sat down. She laid it on the table. "I don't recall you asking me to be your boyfriend." I stated. "If Geglash knows you've got somebody, scenes like that are less likely to occur." Therese said. "Besides, he hasn't seen me in over a decade and I was going to ask you anyway." "At least you didn't say fiance." I mutter as the barmaid brings the water that we had ordered. Therese smirked. "I would have paid a king's ransom to see the look on your face if I had said it." "I know you would have. How much is a king's ransom?" "Depends on how desperate for gold the ransomers are, the political status of the king, the wealth of the king and how angry the people are at the king." answered Therese. "Oh." We sat in silence for a moment. I held her hand in mine and asked "Therese, will you be my girlfriend?" She replied softly "Yes." "You ditch De Seis and wind up with his cousin twelve years later." I said jokingly. "What's wrong with that?" She asked as she leaned against me. "Nothing, but Jerhyn's gonna be angry." "I don't care." she replied while getting the sand out of her hair. I called up a small wind and a second later all the sand, grease and assorted desert bugs in her hair were in a small pile on the table. "Showoff." She said. "I know I am. What's your point?" "That we need to find everyone else and figure out what's wrong with Atma. She's never like this except when someone close died." I swept the sand off the table and stood up. Therese stood also. Both of us noticed the man at the table with Geglash was Jerhyn and that he'd seen and heard everything. Predictably, he had an angered expression on his face. Therese smiled sweetly, a smile that said "Nah, nah, nah, nanah, nah, you can't do anything about it!" I made sure Jerhyn was watching as we exited the tavern. Once outside I morphed to a werewolf. Jerhyn gasped and revenge was the first expression on his face. Fear was the second expression, then a bittersweet realization as he figured out how to blackmail Therese using me. We found our allies at the Desert Rain Inn talking to the owner Elzix about the demons in the desert. Therese skillfully turned the conversation to the types of undead in the area. The conversation went something like this:

Elzix "The sand maggots are easily killed once their armor is chinked."

Therese "What about undead? I know there's some in the area."

Elzix "Um, there's zombies, and skeletons and mummies like Radament. That's all I can think of off the top of my head."

Jacob "Radament?"

Elzix "Horadric mummy that occasionally walks the streets at night looking for human flesh. Atma has a personal score with the creature. The story isn't mine to tell though. Go to Atma if you want the story."

Amanda "Will do."

We walked back to _The Troubadour _and asked for Atma. A raven-haired woman dressed in purple and gold came out of the back room. "Hello Therese. What did you do to your brother? That's the first time he's been in my pub and drank _that_ much in several months." "I cut myself off from the family. I wouldn't marry Titus de Seis. The werewolf is his cousin Andrew." Therese winked at Atma who said "No wonder Jerhyn was ticked off. Left-hand?" Therese looked mildly offended "We just got together not twenty minutes ago at the Lover's Table. There won't be any left-hand for another few years and that's if we even stay together." Once again Therese spoke in riddles and I was the only one who didn't have the faintest clue what they were talking about. Too late, it hit me. Left hand. Marriage. I gave a silent groan at my stupidity. Therese then said "I don't think I'll marry for a few years anyway. I want to see the Amazon Islands and meet my queen. Maybe stay there for a while. Anyway, what's this I hear about you having a personal score with the mummy that roams the streets at night?" Atma sighs "In the sewers below our city, there lurks a horrid creature that hungers for human flesh. Radament has killed many, including my son Kiev and my husband Aldan. If you destroy it, I will reward you. Please be careful though, that beast has taken enough from us already. The sewer entrance is through the trapdoor just up the street."

~O~O~O~O~O~O

_Jacob, Barbarian_

Atma gave us a quest to kill a powerful mummy thing. Only one problem. I hate mummies. Skeletons are fine as are unmoving dead bodies, but I can't deal with mummies. My younger brother and sister were killed by one last year. I was on Earth learning crappy magic. I can do more with my natural barbarian abilities than I can with that crap I learned on Earth.

We walked toward the trapdoor. It _stank_ like, well, sewage. Serenity grabbed my hand to steady herself because of the acrid stench. "_Did you expect it to smell like flowers? Come on_!" Zach ordered. He activated the Sanctuary aura, two golden plus signs, one really bright and one really dim. They wavered back and forth like a metronome. Serenity and Bryon created their golems, ice and fire respectively. I cast Shout, Battle Command and Battle Orders. Amanda casts Fade, Shadow Master and Cloak of Shadows. Andrew summons his spirit pets, wolves and ravens, then morphs to a werewolf. Therese calls for a Valkyrie while Bryon summons Bone Armor and readies the skeleton spell. Serenity cast Enchant on all of us as well as Shiver Armor and Energy Shield for herself. "_Are we ready now? I don't want to be in the sewers any longer than I have to be_." My girlfriend asked. "I think so." I replied. We walked down the stairs to the sewers. Ankle deep rain water and things I prefer not to think about were making everything really slippery. Serenity was slipping so often, she ended up using Telekinesis to stay afloat in midair. "Nice idea, Tonks." I teased. She waited until I passed her and then poked me in between my shoulder blades with her staff. "Ow!" I said rubbing the spot. "_Shut up_!" Therese said, listening for tell-tale splash of someone approaching our party.

Jerhyn came from behind us with a sword and some sort of magic chain that looked like silver. "As I said before milady, you will not fight with your allies. I meant it." said Jerhyn. Andrew growled, showing all his teeth and moved defensively in front of Therese. Jerhyn laughed and threw the chain which grew into a silver net ensnaring Andrew forcing him to howl like a maniac. Therese had a horrified look on her face. She dashed forward with her spear to try and break the chain. It didn't work. "If you stop fighting and come back with me to the palace, I'll let Andrew go." said Jerhyn. "You BASTARD!" Therese called him many other things that I don't remember, with blackmailer being among the ones I do remember. With that she abandoned the physical attempt to set Andrew free. "Athulua, please help me." Therese mumbled. She was enveloped in a golden light and levitated a few feet from the ground. She set herself back on the ground but kept the aura. Therese walked toward Jerhyn and slapped him harder that I have ever seen her hit anyone. Or thing, for that matter. Jerhyn's concentration on the chain wavered a bit, so I dashed forward and cut the chain like it was butter. Andrew morphed back to a human and ran back to join us. He had thin cuts on his face & body. Before the aura died, Therese teleported Jerhyn back to the palace with no recollection of the incident nor the inclination to ever follow us again. She fairly flew at Andrew, hugging him and saying "Thank Athulua you're alright. Take this. It will help the pain." She handed him a red healing potion. Andrew drank it and swore. "My grandmother's rabbit stew. Nasty and usually had bugs in it. Yuck." "If it's nasty enough to swear at, I don't want to try it." said Rogue. "I don't blame you. I had to eat it as a kid, but I won't come within ten miles of it now." replied Andrew. "What'd I miss? I found the way down." asked Amanda, coming back into the room. No one had noticed her slip away. "Therese slapped Jerhyn who had injured Andrew by throwing a silver net over him." said Bryon. "Ah. Not much then." stated Amanda.

The staircase down was only three confusing hallways away from the entrance. If I'd been in there alone, I would have gotten lost right from the start and said so as we walked down the staircase. "_We would have found you. Andrew is an excellent tracker_." Therese absentmindedly responded. She was trying to find the waypoint when she ran straight into a band of Returned Mages. They started shooting fireballs at her. She Dodged every fireball and drew her spear at the same time. Less than ten seconds later, all six opposing skeletal mages were dead and transformed into Bryon's skeletal mages. The waypoint was at least a mile away from the staircase going down. Therese and Serenity keep telling me that in reality it was maybe five hundred yards and that the fighting killed my sense of distance. "_Therese, who the heck is Athulua_?" I asked. "_The queen of all Amazonian deities_." she replied. "_Oh_." I continued walking. There were walking corpses that we dispatched of easily. We had just cleared a room of Skeleton archers, minor mummies, and Horror Mages when they started to revive and walk towards us again. Therese cursed under her breath and drew her spear. She charged it with Lightning Fury and threw it against the wall. It rebounded to hit most of the skeletons. I used Whirlwind to clear the rest of the room and the Unraveler this time. We found the staircase down to the third level. Upon walking down, we were immediately assaulted by Horror Mages and skeleton archers. Bryon created as many minions as possible, which helped cut down on the demons that the Unravelers could revive. After Bryon made his minions, Andrew would use his Carrion Vine to make the corpses unrevivable while Therese and Serenity used cold attacks to freeze the demons. Then the people that used melee weapons would come in and shatter the demons to bits of ice that quickly melted. We used this strategy until we got in the room with Radament.

~O~O~O~O~O~O

_Zach, Paladin_

Radament's lair was filled with undead. I used Holy Bolt to destroy as many as I could, but Radament kept using Unholy Blot to revive the corpses and skeletons and such. I fought my way to him to try and kill him. "_Amanda, Bryon, cover me with Corpse Explosion and Death Sentry." _I said. "_No can do. Tiny bit busy."_ replied Amanda, fighting back-to-back with Bryon and Jacob. Bryon was cursing the enemies with Amplify damage, while Amanda and Jacob hacked away at the Dried Corpses. Therese and Serenity were well back from the main fight, using cold attacks over the assassin, necromancer, barbarian trio. Andrew was fighting his way toward Radament as well, so I shot a few Holy Bolts toward him, to help a bit. He morphed to a werewolf, to attack faster. I finally managed to make it to Radament. I slashed at him and he slapped me across the face with his serrated claw thing that served as his right hand. I parried his next blow, but the one after that sliced off my head. I could feel my soul rising up through the sewers, through the trap door and up into the sky. When I stopped...flying is probably the best word here. Anyway, when I stopped flying, I was in surroundings that seemed almost French. A tree with the leaves creating a sphere at the top of the tree, a stone bench and a vine covered archway all on what seemed to be a cloud. It was through this archway that the Archangel Gabriel appeared. He wasted no time in getting to the point. "Zachary, thou art allowed to be resurrected. Thou will revive in Lut Gholein. To get thy armour back thee simply must touch thy corpse." "Are my allies the ones to fulfill the prophecy?" I asked. "Aye. Thou hast a quick mind. Thou shalt succeed in thy quest to rid Sanctuary of the Prime Evils." "Thank you." I said as I floated away.

~O~O~O~O~O~O

_Amanda, Assassin_

When Zach died, I knew we were in big trouble. We had lost the Sanctuary aura as well as Prayer. I cast my least favorite spell, Mind Blast, to stun all the enemies in the room. I quickly cast Cloak of Shadows and laid down some modified Lightning Sentry traps, turning them to cold. The traps froze the Dried Corpses. Jacob and I attacked with standard attacks and Therese helped a bit by using Lightning Fury to shatter the demons. This made Radament more angry than he already was. I laid down some more Cold Sentry traps around Radament. They made him slow down a little bit, but not much. I charged my two katars with Blades of Ice and ran toward Radament. He swung his claw-hand toward me and I blocked it. I raked my weapons across his chest temporarily leaving myself exposed. Radament plunged his claw though my heart. I felt as if I was falling down. I found myself at the end of a very long line. The line moved quickly but hardly any one was talking. I recognized absolutely no one. The people in front of me stayed well away from me. I assumed they were mages that had strayed to corruption. Finally I made it to the front of the line. There were three tunnels marked Heaven, Resurrection and Hell. The ghoul in the booth asked me my name and occupation at the time of death. "Amanda Viz-Jaq'taar, Assassin." He checked a list and said "Your birth name, not the name you adopted." I cringed. "Amanda Devilsfriend, Assassin." "Resurrection." The ghoul responded. I was puzzled but went through the Resurrection tunnel.

~O~O~O~O~O~O

_Serenity, Sorceress _

I was staying behind the general mess of chaos and using the coldest attacks I could to shatter the undead to cut down on what Radament could revive. You could sometimes tell that he was going to resurrect something but most times you couldn't, which is how I died for the first time. Radament resurrected a mummy behind me and it cleaved my body in two from my left shoulder to my right hip. Just before I died, I managed to throw a town portal. Once my soul had finished teleporting, I found myself in front of both Rathman and Zann Esu elders. I recognized my former master Listarra and Raviena, the one female Rathman elder. Turns out, they were the speakers for the respective clans. Other than that, I didn't see anyone I knew. Listarra spoke first "Serenity, we banished you for creating a Lightning golem, correct?" I nodded. "I was banished because the table of Elders thought that it was too haphazard, binding Rathman magic with Zann Esu, even though both sides willingly gave me sacred knowledge in which was the information to create such a golem." "Such is true, I gave her the spell to create the golem and the sorceresses took her in to teach her the lightning and ice magics." replied Raviena. "I combined them and had no problems controlling it, as my father was a Necromancer, if both parties recall."I stated. "Ayuh! That is not what we are here to discuss!" roared the Head of the Necromancers. "Father." warned Raviena, her voice low. "After debating for close to a fortnight, we decided to allow you to be resurrected. However once this quest is over," I interrupted Listarra "I will travel to the Barbarian homelands with Jacob and never be seen by Zann Esu and quite possibly Rathman eyes again." "Ayuh! That clears up the matter. However, I want to see this fabled Lightning Golem." said Raviena's father. I concentrated for a moment and created the golem. The various sorceresses present swore and hastily backed away. The Priests of Rathma, in obvious contrast, moved closer. The golem looked at me and grunted, as if it was asking me if it should attack. "No Sparx. They are...friends of mine.""It is very interesting, but you have a quest to finish, don't you?" asked Raviena. "Yeah. Come Sparx." I ordered.

_Rogue_

We'd already lost our sorceress, our paladin, and our assassin. Our sorceress had thoughtfully threw a town portal just before she died so we had a way of escaping. I cast Invisibility and ran toward the Unraveler guarding the portal. I killed it with a quick thrust of my knife and stepped back to avoid the poison that it released when it died, thus clearing the town portal. "_Retreat!"_ shouted Therese. We ran toward the portal. We found our dead party members resurrected and sitting outside the portal. "Rogue, can you cast Illusion, or Notice-me-not, or something like that so that those three can get their armor and stuff back? After that, we need you and Amanda to cast Notice-me-not and Cloak of Shadows on Radament. All the Sisters that are still here, cast Inner sight. Those of you who have died or have dead mercenaries, here's five grand. That should pay to have the mercenaries resurrected. Everyone else pick your most powerful weapon and use it!" ordered Therese. Everyone quickly scattered to get stuff done. Fifteen minutes later, everyone was ready with everything cast and ready to go back into the portal.

Immediately after we entered the portal, I cast Invisibility on everyone. Radament didn't see us as we slipped around behind him, quiet as wraiths. Zach began sawing at Radament's claw to disable him of his weapon. Radament noticed and started swinging his claw to attempt to rid himself of Zach's sword. Amanda cast Blade Fury, aiming at Radament's claw. It almost completely broke off with only a single strand of cloth holding it on. Amanda quickly rushed in and severed the remaining strand to deprive Radament of his weapon. "_Fire attacks, NOW!"_ ordered Therese. Everyone that had a fire attack used it for about ten seconds. Then we switched to cold attacks. Radament froze and exploded in a shower of poison and ice chunks. He dropped eight Books of Skill, an ax, knives, a scythe and a pair of leather boots. Serenity was rummaging in the various chests when she found an ancient Horadric scroll. We opened it and none of us could make head nor tail of it. We all agreed to bring it to Deckard Cain and see what he had to say about it. Since Serenity's portal had disappeared, we set up another one and went though. Therese was carrying the mysterious scroll and Jacob was holding Radament's claw as proof that we'd killed him. Atma was waiting a few feet away from the portal. The sky was dark. Evidently we'd been fighting Radament and his minions almost all day and well into the night. Atma took the claw that Jacob had presented her and said "The taste of vengeance is bittersweet but I find it to my liking. As a token of our gratitude, I have spoken with all the merchants, and they have agreed to sell you their wares at a lower price." "Thank you, Lady Atma. We shall make good use of your reward." replied Therese. We were tired form the adrenaline rush and the fighting. All of us went to our trunks and fell asleep.

**Okay, I know I said a month ½ to 2 months, but I actually didn't write this in five days. I've been working on the last two chap. while I was working on the first chap. actually. Next Chapter is entitled; ****How To Capture a Prime Evil You Know Nothing About.**


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